A group of Kuwaiti legislators have agreed to scrap a law enforcing gender segregation at schools and universities, although males and females would still have to be separated within the same classroom.
The approved draft law was criticised by conservative Islamists as being “disrespectful”, while one MP said it was “moral corruption”.
Males and females have been forced to attend separate classes in schools and universities since 2000 after the segregation law was passed by an Islamist and conservative-dominated parliament in 1996 and initially implemented in Kuwait University.
The new Shadadiya University was forced to build entirely separate campuses for male and female students.
The MPs on Sunday said the segregation impacted on students’ education.
However, the draft law must first be passed by a majority of MPs and there was strong criticism among them on Sunday.
Islamist MP Khaled Al-Shulaimi said the move was “disrespectful” and declared he would not vote for it, according to Kuwait Times.
MP Faisal Al-Kandari, a member of the committee, said he voted against the draft law and would oppose it again if it was presented in the assembly.
Former MP Falah Al-Sawwagh accused those who support the bill of attempting to transfer “moral corruption” onto the society.
