Kuwait announced Thursday that it will begin training female police officers, little over a year after the emir decreed equal political rights for women.
"An academy to train policewomen will soon be established in Kuwait," Interior Minister Sheikh Mohamed al-Khaled al-Sabah said, cited by the official news agency KUNA.
Emir Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah decreed in 1999 that Kuwaiti women should have the same rights as male citizens, but the parliament, facing strong opposition from its Islamist and tribal members, voted down a proposal to give women the right to vote.
Nearby Saudi Arabia announced in October that it would start a police academy for women. Saudi women do not have the right to drive and are severely restricted in their career choices, with medicine and teaching almost the only occupations open to them -- KUWAIT CITY (AFP)
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