Latest news with #KuwaitUniversity
Kuwait Times
4 days ago
- General
- Kuwait Times
Without reform, youth will inherit growing racism, classism: Expert
Professor urges redefining racism in line with regional realities, recognizing effect of external factors KUWAIT: A Kuwait University professor says thoughtful analysis and reform, especially in media and education, is needed to address the rise of racism in the Gulf. Dr Sawsan Karimi, a university professor specializing in Middle Eastern anthropology, said tackling racism requires defining what it means in the Gulf context. 'Is it the concept we use globally to address inhumane behavior, or is it something shaped by our own historical experience? Or is it a concept imposed on us externally?' she asks. She explains that the Western experience with racism, especially against black people, shaped much of the global discourse on racism due to Western dominance and their tendency to apply their standards universally. 'We didn't experience racism exactly in the same way, but that doesn't mean we are free from it. The concept itself is problematic and needs to be deconstructed to relate it properly to our historical and cultural context.' Current influences Today, Dr Karimi observes that racism in the Gulf is influenced heavily by regional religious, sectarian, and ethnic conflicts. 'We are not a closed society; we are influenced by external factors, including conflicts around us.' Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram further feed these attitudes, especially among the youth. 'Our children's attitudes are shaped by what is superficially presented on these platforms. Because we are mainly consumers, not producers of content.' She warns that without real reform in media and education, which have the greatest impact on young minds, these issues will worsen. Wealth and classism Another key factor is the Gulf's rapid modernization and economic wealth. 'I think one of the biggest challenges we face is the effects of economic wealth on our socio-cultural structure,' she said. Dr Karimi explains how this has created an unhealthy form of classism that often outweighs ethnic or racial affiliations. 'Wealthy people tend to marry each other, even with different, let's say, ethnic affiliations. But a person of the same race will not take a very poor person,' Dr Karimi added. The Gulf is one of the world's most consumptive regions per capita—whether in water, food, or luxury goods,' she said, highlighting the rampant classism that people in the Gulf grapple with. 'Much of our wealth is spent on consumption, social status, and showmanship.' Dr Karimi stresses that the media and education system play a crucial role in addressing these issues and instilling the ethics of justice, equality, love, and cooperation. 'These are not new values for Gulf societies; our tradition of neighborliness is based on mutual support and social solidarity.' She advocates for media—such as popular soap operas—to actively preserve and promote these values through their narratives. Similarly, education must reinforce these ethics in tangible ways. 'What we sow now, we will reap soon. If the media and education systems do not change, the situation will deteriorate,' Dr Karimi warns. However, she remains optimistic: 'If we undertake a serious review and reform process, we can avoid future problems.'
Kuwait Times
5 days ago
- General
- Kuwait Times
Japan and Kuwait strengthen cultural, technological ties
KUWAIT: A rich dialogue unfolded on Sunday at the closing ceremony of the Second Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Poster Exhibition at the Contemporary Art Platform, as Kuwaiti and Japanese experts exchanged reflections on peace, memory, and the potential for deeper cultural and technological collaboration. 'Hiroshima's vibrant culture, refined traditions, and innovative spirit remind us of the enduring value of peace,' said Japanese Ambassador to Kuwait Mukai Kenichiro, highlighting how the city, globally known as a symbol of peace, is also a thriving center of craftsmanship and creativity. 'From cutting-edge industries to traditional arts and cuisine, Hiroshima continues to preserve its past while driving future innovation. We see strong potential for partnerships with Kuwait in business, technology, tourism, and the creative industries.' Dr Hasan Ashkanani, Professor of Anthropological Archaeology at Kuwait University and Consultant for Archaeology and Museum Affairs at the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL), shared insights from his recent training in Hiroshima and Tokyo on advanced 3D documentation techniques for preserving archaeological heritage. He announced that Kuwait will host its first Japanese expert from June 20 to 25, who will lead training sessions for students, NCCAL staff, and IT professionals on applying these techniques to sites such as Failaka. 'We have over 1,000 archaeological sites, and we want to introduce them to our people and the world in advanced, virtual formats,' he said. Dr. Hamed Al-Ajlan Dr Hasan Ashkanani Shotaro Kobayashi Photos are displayed at the Second Hiroshima-Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Poster Exhibition. - Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat He recalled standing in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, pausing at a preserved piece of fish skin, and being struck by a powerful memory. 'It reminded me of 1990. I was eight years old. We share the same feeling of injustice. August 1945 and August 1990 are tied by pain — 250,000 lives lost in Japan, over 700 in Kuwait during the invasion.' Ashkanani's visit also revealed how Hiroshima now uses virtual reality to recreate the bombing experience. 'That was one of the main reasons I went. I wanted to bring this to Kuwait — to tell our stories and preserve our memory in interactive, immersive ways.' Dr Hamed Al-Ajlan, former Director of Scientific Culture at KFAS, also reflected on his visit to Hiroshima. 'I expected a very sad city,' he said, 'but I found it beautiful and full of flowers.' At the Peace Museum, one moment stayed with him: a watch belonging to a soldier, its hands frozen at 8:15 — the moment the atomic bomb fell. 'By the time I left the museum, I cried,' he recalled. 'But Hiroshima is much more than tragedy. There's industry, culture and resilience behind it.' Adding a business perspective, Shotaro Kobayashi, President of BIZRES Co. Ltd. and board member of the Hiroshima Entertainment Association, highlighted that while Hiroshima is often viewed through the lens of its past, it is also home to thriving industries — including automobiles, furniture, and food. 'Connections with the Middle East, especially Kuwait, remain limited,' he said, 'but the potential is there.'
New Straits Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
'Stateless overnight': Kuwait strips tens of thousands of citizenship
DUBAI: Leaving her weekly workout class, Lama was shocked to discover she was no longer a Kuwaiti – one of tens of thousands of people, mostly women, suddenly stripped of citizenship. After her credit card payment for the class in Kuwait City was declined, she learnt her bank account was temporarily frozen because her nationality, acquired through marriage, had been revoked. "It was a shock," said the grandmother in her 50s, originally from Jordan, who, like others interviewed by AFP, asked to use a pseudonym, fearing a backlash from the authorities. "To be a law-abiding citizen for more than 20 years and then wake up one day to find out you're no longer a citizen... that's not okay at all," she said. The mass revocations have been cast as part of a reformist agenda spearheaded by Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who dissolved parliament and suspended parts of the constitution five months after taking power in December 2023. His latest citizenship policy appears aimed at restricting nationality to those with blood ties to the tiny, oil-rich nation, reshaping Kuwaiti identity and potentially trimming its electorate after years of political crisis, analysts told AFP. In a televised speech to the country of nearly five million – only a third of them Kuwaitis – the emir pledged in March to "deliver Kuwait to its original people clean and free from impurities." Lama is among more than 37,000 people including at least 26,000 women who have lost Kuwaiti nationality since August, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Media reports suggest the real number could be much higher. While large-scale citizenship revocations are not unheard of in Kuwait, "the volume is definitely unprecedented," said Bader al-Saif, assistant professor of history at Kuwait University. Kuwait already has a large stateless community: the Bidoon, estimated at around 100,000 people, who were denied citizenship on independence from British protectorship in 1961. The latest campaign abolishes naturalisation by marriage, which only applied to women, and revokes citizenship granted to wives since 1987. Official data show 38,505 women were naturalised by marriage from 1993 to 2020. It also targets people with dual nationality, which Kuwait does not allow, and those who became citizens fraudulently – by using forged documents, for example. Others naturalised for their achievements, including pop singer Nawal The Kuwaiti and actor Dawood Hussain, have also lost their citizenship. "Overnight, I became stateless," businesswoman Amal, who had been Kuwaiti for nearly two decades, told AFP. Many have been left in legal limbo while they scramble to restore their previous nationality. "The right to nationality is a very basic human right, and failure to respect and ensure it can wreak havoc on people's lives, as... the Bidoon know all too well," Amnesty International's Mansoureh Mills told AFP. Analysts say the latest drive has the question of Kuwaiti nationhood at its core. "I trace it to the notion of identity: who are we as a nation?" said Saif. While Kuwait's parliament is a rarity in the monarchical Gulf, its tiered citizenship system limits political rights to those born to a Kuwaiti father. After Iraq's invasion in 1990, naturalised Kuwaitis were granted voting rights after 20 years of citizenship, as were children born after their father's naturalisation. It was "a token of appreciation" for standing by Kuwait, Saif said, but also a "push for national unity after liberation." But Kuwait's new leadership have "an exclusionary vision of Kuwaiti nationalism," keeping out "people who lack deep roots there," said Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics. For researcher Melissa Langworthy, who studied citizenship issues in the Gulf, naturalised women are "being told clearly that they are not the ideal reproducers of the nation." "They went after mothers, the heart of the family," lamented Lama, adding: "We are the mothers and grandmothers of the children of this country." Initially cast as a crackdown on fraudsters taking advantage of Kuwait's generous benefits, the move was welcomed in a country where many complain of corruption and mismanagement. But the mood quickly changed. A Kuwaiti man whose wife lost her citizenship said the government was equating "innocent women and fraudsters." His wife, a retired civil servant, had her pension suspended for more than six months and her bank loan frozen. "What kind of message are we conveying by inciting racism and treating them unfairly?" he said. Authorities have promised the women will be treated as Kuwaiti and keep their social benefits, but those hit by the campaign have lost any political rights. The emir cited constant standoffs between lawmakers and the royal-appointed cabinet when he dissolved the parliament, which had long delayed reforms needed to diversify the oil-reliant economy. "The Kuwaiti leadership is possibly seeking to reduce the citizen population in order to shape a smaller, more politically manageable electorate," said Cafiero.
NDTV
25-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
'Stateless Overnight': Kuwait Strips Tens Of Thousands Of Citizenship
Leaving her weekly workout class, Lama was shocked to discover she was no longer a Kuwaiti -- one of tens of thousands of people, mostly women, suddenly stripped of citizenship. After her credit card payment for the class in Kuwait City was declined, she learnt her bank account was temporarily frozen because her nationality, acquired through marriage, had been revoked. "It was a shock," said the grandmother in her 50s, originally from Jordan, who like others interviewed by AFP asked to use a pseudonym, fearing a backlash from the authorities. "To be a law-abiding citizen for more than 20 years and then wake up one day to find out you're no longer a citizen... that's not okay at all," she said. The mass revocations have been cast as part of a reformist agenda spearheaded by Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who dissolved parliament and suspended parts of the constitution five months after taking power in December 2023. His latest citizenship policy appears aimed at restricting nationality to those with blood ties to the tiny, oil-rich nation, reshaping Kuwaiti identity and potentially trimming its electorate after years of political crisis, analysts told AFP. In a televised speech to the country of nearly five million -- only a third of them Kuwaitis -- the emir pledged in March to "deliver Kuwait to its original people clean and free from impurities". Lama is among more than 37,000 people including at least 26,000 women who have lost Kuwaiti nationality since August, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Media reports suggest the real number could be much higher. While large-scale citizenship revocations are not unheard of in Kuwait, "the volume is definitely unprecedented", said Bader al-Saif, assistant professor of history at Kuwait University. Kuwait already has a big stateless community: the Bidoon, estimated at around 100,000 people, who were denied citizenship on independence from British protectorship in 1961. 'They Went After Mothers' The latest campaign abolishes naturalisation by marriage, which only applied to women, and revokes citizenship granted to wives since 1987. Official data shows 38,505 women were naturalised by marriage from 1993 to 2020. It also targets people with dual nationality, which Kuwait does not allow, and those who became citizens fraudulently -- by using forged documents, for example. Others naturalised for their achievements, including pop singer Nawal The Kuwaiti and actor Dawood Hussain, have also lost their citizenship. "Overnight, I became stateless," businesswoman Amal, who had been Kuwaiti for nearly two decades, told AFP. Many have been left in legal limbo while they scramble to restore their previous nationality. "The right to nationality is a very basic human right, and failure to respect and ensure it can wreak havoc on people's lives, as... the Bidoon know all too well," Amnesty International's Mansoureh Mills told AFP. Analysts say the latest drive has the question of Kuwaiti nationhood at its core. "I trace it to the notion of identity: who are we as a nation?" said Saif. While Kuwait's parliament is a rarity in the monarchical Gulf, its tiered citizenship system limits political rights to those born to a Kuwaiti father. After Iraq's invasion in 1990, naturalised Kuwaitis were granted voting rights after 20 years of citizenship, as were children born after their father's naturalisation. It was "a token of appreciation" for standing by Kuwait, Saif said, but also a "push for national unity after liberation". But Kuwait's new leadership have "an exclusionary vision of Kuwaiti nationalism", keeping out "people who lack deep roots there", said Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics. For researcher Melissa Langworthy, who studied citizenship issues in the Gulf, naturalised women are "being told clearly that they are not the ideal reproducers of the nation". "They went after mothers, the heart of the family," lamented Lama, adding: "We are the mothers and grandmothers of the children of this country." 'Innocent Women' Initially cast as a crackdown on fraudsters taking advantage of Kuwait's generous benefits, the move was welcomed in a country where many complain of corruption and mismanagement. But the mood quickly changed. A Kuwaiti man whose wife lost her citizenship said the government was equating "innocent women and fraudsters". His wife, a retired civil servant, had her pension suspended for more than six months and her bank loan frozen. "What kind of message are we conveying by inciting racism and treating them unfairly?" he said. Authorities have promised the women will be treated as Kuwaiti and keep their social benefits, but those hit by the campaign have lost any political rights. The emir cited constant standoffs between lawmakers and the royal-appointed cabinet when he dissolved the parliament, which had long delayed reforms needed to diversify the oil-reliant economy. "The Kuwaiti leadership is possibly seeking to reduce the citizen population in order to shape a smaller, more politically manageable electorate," said Cafiero.
Kuwait Times
22-05-2025
- Health
- Kuwait Times
Seminar held to introduce Special Olympics at KU
KUWAIT: The National Director of Special Olympics Kuwait, Rihab Bouresli, stressed the importance of the participation of educational institutions in the activities of the Special Olympics Kuwait as a key partner to translate the Unified Champions Schools program in the Olympics into a reality in which educational integration is achieved through sports, as a nucleus to build inclusive and comprehensive educational communities that ensure that young people have access to opportunities that promote acceptance and understanding and create a study atmosphere characterized by acceptance of difference. This came at the introductory lecture on the Special Olympics and its programs organized by the College of Life Sciences at Kuwait University. She expressed her happiness with the level of attendance and interaction witnessed during the lecture and thanked college faculty member Dr Ghanima Al-Faleh for the wonderful and distinctive organization. Rihab Bouresli began the lecture by reviewing the launch of the Special Olympics and its transformation from an individual initiative of Mrs Eunice Kennedy, sister of the late US President John F. Kennedy in 1968 to the largest humanitarian sporting event in the world and the largest global movement focused on empowering people with intellectual disabilities in society through sports, initiative programs and health care. Special Olympics Kuwait has expanded its activities, programs, practitioner base, and regional and international achievements since it resumed its activities in 2018. Captain Bilal Al-Hamami reviewed the Special Olympics sports program, available games and the classification of players to give all levels of special players the opportunity to compete. Captain Linda Jaber, Initiatives Officer, introduced the program and its role in honing the abilities of Special Olympics players and developing them, through a variety of community, educational, health and sports initiatives and the role of the program in engaging the entire community in supporting inclusion encouraging the integration of players' families in activities and events and providing psychological and social support to the players. Special Olympics Health Program Officer Dalal Bou Hamad discussed the Special Olympics Health Program and its role in caring for the health and well-being of people with intellectual disabilities, by providing medical services through 9 specialized clinics and awareness and sports programs aimed at enhancing their quality of life, also training medical staff by providing courses for doctors, nurses and volunteers to deal with people with intellectual disabilities. The lecture was held in the presence of Hanaa Al-Zawawi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Special Olympics Kuwait, Dr Hanadi Abdul Salam, Acting Vice Dean of the College, and a number of Special Olympics athletes from leadership programs, health ambassadors, members of the technical and administrative staff of the Special Olympics and the Special Olympics Club, as well as a number of Special Olympics athletes from leadership programs, health ambassadors, and members of the technical and administrative staff of the Special Olympics and the Special Olympics Club of Kuwait.
