Dismantling the Narrative: Kuwait, the “Gulf Exception”

By Hasnaa Al Shammariyya

Talking about the crime of arresting people for their opinions in Kuwait is fraught and dangerous, especially when the focus is on women who have become victims of the Kuwaiti police state.

This is a system that has long tried to conceal its authoritarian nature behind a thin curtain of limited, performative condemnation and symbolic objections. It repeatedly reproduces an image that sidelines dissenting voices and polishes the political, legal, diplomatic, and humanitarian reality. Meanwhile, the actual narrative is shaped through relationships and funding that have resulted in timid condemnations and inadequate positions, sometimes even misleading ones.

The Bidoon case is proof. In Kuwait, where many Bidoon women are denied fundamental rights, affected women and activists have argued that Reem Alsalem’s disregard for their suffering, and her presentation of a different image of women’s realities, helped mislead public opinion and cover up cases of enforced disappearance, prisoners of conscience, and other victims of violence. This comes despite repeated requests from victims to meet and provide direct testimonies, and despite public calls for a visit to Kuwait’s women’s prison, with specific attention to the case of prisoner of conscience Amena Mohammad Akhmais Al-Merri.

Laws: Repression Legislated in the Name of the Law

Kuwaiti laws that restrict freedom of expression impose severe limitations that conflict with Kuwait’s obligations under international human rights law. Drafted in vague and elastic language, these laws have been used to prosecute dozens of men and women over their views, widening the authorities’ room to evade accountability.

In this context, Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of the Middle East Division at Human Rights Watch, said:
“This law comes at a time when Kuwait is prosecuting a number of opposition politicians, activists, and journalists, using broad interpretations of moral motives and national security requirements, allowing for the restriction of Kuwaitis’ rights to freedom of expression.”

Among the most frequently used provisions are:

Article 25 of the Penal Code: imposes imprisonment on anyone who insults or criticizes the Emir or his authority.
Article 29 of the Penal Code: criminalizes incitement to overthrow the ruling system through broadly interpretable wording.
Article 30 of Law No. 31 of 1970: prohibits groups deemed to threaten fundamental systems.
Articles 4 and 25 of the National Security Law: used to punish expression under claims of national security or insult.

Since January 2011, authorities have used these provisions and others to prosecute at least 63 people for expressing critical views on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other social media platforms, according to Human Rights Watch.

Women’s Prison: A Punitive Institution, Not a Rehabilitative One

Any discussion of state repression in Kuwait inevitably leads to the women’s prison, a place that has shifted from a rehabilitative institution into a black hole that swallows voices daring to speak.

A former prisoner described to Al-Rai newspaper a reality of harsh treatment, violence among inmates, lack of hygiene, harassment, poor food and water, tattered clothing, and the absence of air conditioning and heating. She also described a temporary staging of “improvement” whenever officials visited.

She said: “As soon as we were stripped of our clothes and all our belongings, which were deposited for safekeeping and replaced with prison uniforms, we faced harsh treatment from some women warders who had no understanding of even the most basic principles of dealing with women.” She added that inmates are subjected to violence without any deterrent system regulating life inside the prison, leaving prisoners with two choices: defiance and punishment, or submission.

She noted that hygiene was almost nonexistent, whether in food, water, or bathrooms. She also described the poor quality and transparency of the clothing provided in a prison where male security officers are present.

On weather conditions, she said she saw no heating in winter and no air conditioning in summer. Everything changes temporarily during visits by officials or human rights groups, then quickly returns to what it was.

She also spoke about the solitary confinement cell known as “Al Saja,” where some prisoners are held in a narrow, dark room, with their hands and feet restrained, for days so harsh that words cannot capture them.

Sexual Violence and Settling Scores

In the women’s prison, scores are settled. Some inmates are subjected to beatings, blackmail, and sexual harassment, whether by other inmates or by some staff members, in addition to police officers. International reporting suggests these violations are not confined to the women’s prison alone, but extend to other detention and interrogation sites.

Prisoner of conscience Amena Mohammad Akhmais Al-Merri was subjected to sexual harassment and sought help from her father over the phone. A Kuwaiti opposition commentator and former woman prisoner also wrote about her own arrest, saying: “May God protect her from the inmate who harassed me on orders from Fahd Al-Yousef.”

Another former prisoner told Al-Rai that the women’s prison is fertile ground for fear and pain, saying: “All of this can be endured, but being harassed by “trans-boys” serving prison sentences, and when a complaint is filed, it rarely goes beyond an internal investigation and a warning.” She added: “My colleague in the ward was harassed almost daily, not only by “trans-boys”, but also by a woman warder known for touching inmates under the pretext of searching them.”

In another case, the artist Ohood Al Azemiyya, known as “Malak Al Kuwaitiyya,” was physically assaulted inside prison by another inmate after her arrest and sentencing to five years, following a mutual case between her and former MP Ahmad Al Shuhoumi.

These incidents do not appear isolated from a wider pattern across Gulf prisons. Amnesty International has reported that activist Manal Al Otaibi was subjected to severe beatings in a Saudi prison by inmates and guards.

International Reports: What We Know Before It Is Written

The report “Kuwait CAT DP,” issued by The Advocates for Human Rights and WCADP, documents extensive human rights violations. It includes what happened to the Bidoon activist Alaa Al-Saadoun, who faced arrest, blackmail, exposure to domestic violence, and then forced admission into psychiatric care.

Former MP Muhannad Al-Sayer previously directed a question to the Minister of Health, Dr. Khaled Al-Saeed, about forcibly admitting women into psychiatric hospitals without medical files. He asked: “How many women citizens have been admitted to the psychiatric hospital despite not suffering from psychological or mental illnesses? What is the legal basis for depriving them of their freedom and keeping them in the hospital?”

The report also documents cases involving the detention of underage Bidoon girls, victims of enforced disappearance, and sexual exploitation. It points to torture and ill treatment during arrest, interrogation, and detention, including against members of the LGBTQI+ community.

It further highlights women who come into conflict with the law, noting that they face intersecting forms of discrimination because their experiences are not taken into account, including gender based violence, human trafficking, and poverty. This can sometimes lead to harsher sentences or worse detention conditions.

What must be stated clearly is that we do not need a report to teach us what we live within these worn out borders, especially as Bidoon women with no nationality, or as domestic workers.

Enforced Disappearance and Secret Trials

Women human rights defenders face growing risks because of their work, from slander, defamation, and social pressure to gender based violence, marginalization, and discrimination. In October 2018, the account of human rights defender Abeer Al-Haddad was hacked after a tweet in which she announced her intention to sue Saleh Al-Fadhala, head of the Central Agency for the Remedy of the Situation of Illegal Residents.

The arrest of women for their opinions in Kuwait is not new. On 10 June 2013, the tweeter H.A., who was 11 years old at the time, was arrested on charges of “insulting the Emir and inciting the overthrow of the ruling system.” Her devices were confiscated and her account was shut down, marking the first ruling against a female citizen on state security charges.

The citizen and mother Ibtihal Al-Shallal Al-Enezi was also arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison over “tweets” deemed offensive, after being monitored and pursued, before she was later released.

Under the rule of Mishal Al-Ahmad, three women university students were arrested without their names being announced. Amena Mohammad Akhmais Al-Merri was also arrested, as was Amena Al-Sayyid Ahmad Al Rifai. Others, women and men, were detained for protesting the crime of citizenship revocations, in a context marked by enforced disappearance and secret trials.

An Explicit Threat from the Minister of Interior

Al-Rai newspaper published a dangerous statement that cannot be ignored. The Minister of Interior, Fahd Al-Yousef, openly threatened anyone who criticizes the authorities and their officials on any topic, not only with stripping their citizenship, but also the citizenship of their children, saying: “So that he does not bring harm upon himself and his children.”

The newspaper quoted security sources as saying: “Whoever chooses to live outside the country and attack Kuwait, its people, and its leadership is the one harming his children.” It continued: “Whoever violates the law and uses fake or alias accounts inside Kuwait to insult and attempt to undermine stability is not beyond the reach of the law. The competent authorities have the expertise, knowledge, tools, and ability to track and apprehend any violator.”

On 21 November 2025, the Ministry of Interior announced the implementation of a campaign that recorded 48 violations across cyberspace, including content offensive to public morals, incitement to debauchery and immorality, and insults to individuals’ dignity, in a move that reinforces a policy of intimidation.

For years, Kuwait has been promoted as the “Gulf exception,” a state portrayed as different from its surroundings, more open to freedom of opinion, and less brutal toward women and dissenters. Yet the realities exposed here, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearance, and violence inside detention facilities, dismantle that narrative. They place Kuwait back in its true context: a state that practices repression through tools that may differ in appearance, but are identical in essence when it comes to targeting women and those who speak out.

By: Hasnaa Al Shammariyya