The Struggle for Housing Independence Among Kuwaiti Women

By: Shahd Al-Jomaily

Legal discrimination, patriarchal institutions, and societal injustice, this triad continues to confine Kuwaiti women and hinder their lives, even after the most recent legal amendments.
Kuwaiti women are still treated as second-class citizens. One of the most significant challenges they face, whether divorced, widowed, married to non-Kuwaitis, or single, is housing independence and the right to own a home on equal footing with men.

Under Kuwaiti law, women do not have independent housing. They must either marry and obtain half of the marital home, provided the husband is Kuwaiti (a process prone to manipulation), or they must purchase a home entirely at their own expense if their spouse is not Kuwaiti. Even then, they do not have the right to pass these homes down to their sons or daughters.

Alternatively, they must accept housing designated for divorced or widowed women, units so deteriorated that they are unfit even for visits, let alone for living.
In all cases, women citizens, whether divorced, widowed, never married, mothers, or even grandmothers, have no right to issue a civil ID, change their address, or even rent a residence suitable for them. Independence in housing, therefore, becomes nearly impossible.

Housing Welfare and Its “Fairness” Toward Kuwaiti Women

Four years ago, “symbolic” amendments were introduced to the housing welfare regulations, marketed as reforms for women, yet they remain a barrier for Kuwaiti women seeking housing independence.

Under housing welfare law, single Kuwaiti women do not have the right to complete housing independence. They are required to reside with their families or relatives, and often struggle to obtain an independent residence, a civil ID, or a personal address.

Housing welfare grants women independence in select cases: widows, divorced women with children, or families consisting of a widow and her children. In these cases, the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) allows them to secure suitable, independent housing, especially when they are the heads of their households.

Custodial divorced women are also entitled to remain in the marital home or receive alternative housing for themselves and their children to ensure their welfare. Widows may receive a property deed in their name along with their unmarried sons or daughters, granting them autonomy over their residence.

However, the rights of divorced or widowed women to housing drop under certain conditions: remarriage, receiving financial compensation, owning another home, or the end of the custody period. The regulations specify that the custodial divorced woman is entitled to “alternative housing” only if she does not remarry.

For single women, obstacles persist even if certain conditions are met, for example: being Kuwaiti, divorced or widowed, never having received housing welfare, or not owning a large or high-value property.

They must also have an income, or their father must act as their provider, and it is often the father who must submit the housing application on their behalf.
A single woman who has never married is not entitled to independent housing.

The Credit Bank provides housing loans only for divorced and widowed women. They may also obtain low-rent accommodations under strict conditions or apply for government program apartments. Private-sector rentals are an option, but this creates fertile ground for financial exploitation by landlords.

Divorced Women and Their Deteriorating Housing Units

Divorced women in Kuwait experience severe neglect. Their pleas go unanswered, and their most basic needs for dignified living are ignored.

Kuwait has long been considered a pioneer in providing housing welfare for its citizens, albeit not as an unconditional right. The state allocated specific housing areas for divorced women, for example, the Al-Sawaber complex before its demolition in 2019, after which some residents were relocated to North West Sulaibikhat and Sulaibiya. Another example is the divorced-women’s complex in Sabah Al-Salem, where women were housed only because citizens avoided living there.

That complex, however, suffers from serious neglect by PAHW, which ignores residents’ requests for repairs and maintenance of its deteriorating, unsafe facilities. Residents also face harassment by the Ministry of Interior, which installs an almost permanent checkpoint at the building. Police inspect the IDs of everyone entering or leaving, often making families wait outside in full view of passers-by, deepening their suffering.

One resident recounts:
“People look down on me and my children just because we live here, as if we do not deserve a decent home. I feel as though I am punished for my divorce and for having children, punished by my state and by my society.”

Women without money, property, or an inherited home from their fathers, and those who do not have half of a marital home, find themselves forced to live in isolated areas with poor reputations, in run-down apartments lacking the basics of dignified living.

Single Women and the Injustice of Real-Estate Traders

Single Kuwaiti women are oppressed… indeed, forgotten. Their natural rights are denied under the guise of tradition, customs, and false concepts that undermine women’s competence and erase their legal autonomy.

Unmarried Kuwaiti women are treated as half-citizens. Kuwaiti single men suffer from some restrictions as well, but not to the same degree.

Single women are legally and socially shackled. They cannot enjoy the benefits granted to married citizens and face numerous obstacles simply because of their marital status. The greatest of these obstacles lies in the real-estate sector:
No unmarried Kuwaiti woman without children can rent commercial property or secure a suitable residence, because many landlords, driven by misogynistic attitudes, refuse to rent even to divorced women with children. Single, never-married women are treated even more harshly.

Furthermore, single women cannot live outside their “guardian’s home,” regardless of their age or social situation. They are forced to live with their families under all circumstances. They also cannot change their residential address unless they own property, an almost impossible task given Kuwait’s exorbitant real-estate prices.

Hotels and serviced apartments also refuse to allow any Kuwaiti woman to book or stay alone, whether married, divorced, widowed, or single, under regulations that diminish women’s autonomy and treat them as citizens with “suspended rights.”

Society and Kuwaiti Women’s Housing Independence

As always, Arab societies impose stricter restrictions on women than any law does, and Kuwaiti society is no exception. Housing independence for women is still treated as shameful, bound tightly to patriarchal expectations and institutions that grant women only crumbs of their rights.

Even if laws guaranteeing women’s housing independence were passed, society would mobilize to deny them this right, from family members to real-estate traders. Legal solutions must therefore be comprehensive and address all issues related to women’s rights, from physical protection to nationality rights and the right to pass citizenship to their children.

Without clear reforms dismantling discriminatory laws, housing independence will remain a privilege attainable only by those who have supportive and understanding families.

By: Shahd Al-Jomaily