Kuwaiti MP refuses to sit by perfumed colleague

A female Kuwaiti MP clashed with a male colleague in parliament recently after he refused to sit with her at a committee meeting, supposedly because she was wearing perfume at the time.

Safa Al-Hashem told the plenum that at a meeting of the legislature’s Negative Phenomena Committee, chairman Mohammed Hayef refused to sit next to her and directed a disrespectful comment at her.

Hayef explained that Islamic law dictates that he cannot “sit next to a woman who wears perfume” and claimed Hashem was lying about the disparaging comment.

He added that “The laws and principles of the sharia are immutable. We cannot change them just because there is a new age or a new ideology. Allah says (to women) in the Quran: ‘And stay in your homes and do not display your allurements.'”

A clip of the argument, with subtitles, was made available by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Hashem for her part was unfazed reminded Hayef that women were half of the population and were also responsible for his seat in parliament.

She cautioned Hayef that “Anyone who thinks he can treat me, who represents Kuwaiti women, with disrespect, should rethink this.

“If you ever do it again, I can give you a chronic headache. I will kill you with that chronic headache.”