Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Kuwait Allows Women to Serve in the National Military for the First Time: Report

October 16, 2021

Kuwait women were granted the right to vote in 2005 and have since served in the government and the parliament

According to local media, Kuwait will soon allow women to join the army for the first time in its history. Kuwaiti women will be allowed to serve in the army as medical support and administrative personnel. According to Al Anba daily, which cited close sources, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Hamad Jaber will release an order soon permitting women to join the army. “The Kuwaiti women will be admitted into a training for officers and non-commissioned officers that will prepare them to work alongside their male countrymen in the Kuwaiti army,” a source said. According to the source, the decree would be announced in two days.

According to Al Qabas, the first wave of female army soldiers will number between 100 and 150 women. Kuwait permitted women to join the police force in 2009. Kuwait began enforcing a rule requiring males under the age of 18 to serve in the military in 2018. Kuwait has made tremendous progress in recent years in ensuring women’s rights to work in traditionally male-dominated industries. The Gulf nation enacted a bill in 2005 allowing women to vote and run for elected office. The bill allowed four female candidates to run for parliamentary seats in a general election a few years later, out of fifty seats available.

Kuwait’s parliament, unlike those in other Gulf countries, has legislative authority. The country’s legislators have been known to challenge the administration and royals. Lieutenant General Sheikh Khaled Saleh Al-Sabah, Chief of the General Staff of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces, discussed significant problems and topics of common interest with Brigadier General David Paddison, Commander of the Australian Joint Task Force. Sheikh Khaled received Paddison and his accompanying entourage during their official visit to the country, according to the general staff in a news statement issued yesterday.