22/02/2022
22/02/2022
‘After the decision to abolish Article 198 of the Kuwaiti Penal Code by the Constitutional Court, which states: ‘Whoever imitates the opposite sex in any way shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year and a fine not exceeding one thousand dinars, or one of these two penalties,’ for violating one of the provisions of the Kuwaiti constitution, which states that ‘personal freedom is guaranteed, society is divided into two groups, the opponent and the supporter’, and here I will present the opinion that contradicts the decision of the Constitutional Court, and this does not call into question the decision of the judiciary, but rather individual opinions in society,” columnist Sahar Bin Ali wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“The voices were raised in the prohibition of imitating the opposite sex, and that intercourse between the same sex is forbidden by law, although transgender people have crossed into the opposite sex and when having sex, that practice is no longer between the same sex but between heterosexuals, but people to this day determine the transgender gender sexually according to the gender that preceded their sexual crossing, meaning that the transgender man was a woman and today is the man.
“When he has sex with a woman, the practice becomes between a woman and a man, and the dilemma is that those who shout rejection do not know the difference between homosexuality and sexual identity, because sex is considered a social taboo which society refuses to talk about publicly.
“Also, there are no clear definitions for each of them in Arab societies. Here, I will explain the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity in simple terms: “Sexual orientation: either heterosexual, which is the tendency of a person to the opposite sex, or homosexuality, which is the tendency of a person to the same sex, or heterosexual, which is the tendency of a person to have both sexes, and they often retain their sexual identity, and do not feel that they belong to another body other than the body with which they were born.
“Therefore, it is difficult to determine a person’s tendencies from their external appearance, except for some people.
“Gender identity: a person feels that he belongs to another gender, not the body in which he was born. “When there is no congruence between gender identity and sexual organs, some resort to sexual transit, and thus the man becomes a woman and the woman becomes a man, the hormones, organs and physical structure change, and in most countries the gender is changed in official documents, but in Kuwait this does not happen, and therefore when it is done the arrest of one of them by the security forces happens and looking at the difference between the person’s external appearance and the official document.
“The transgender person is imprisoned and put behind bars with the opposite sex, without realizing that this person has changed his gender. “The law of imitating the opposite sex was so elastic that the question arises: who decides whether this outward appearance is resemblance or not? If I wore a hat what would I look like? In the end, constitutional civil states guarantee the right of everyone to protection and security, and not to prejudice their personal freedoms.”