Kuwait: Passports For Women

From Gulf Daily News:

Kuwaiti women will now be able to obtain their own passports and travel without the prior consent of their husbands following a ruling yesterday.

The constitutional court abrogated an article in the 1962 passports law that prevented a woman from getting her own passport without her husband's prior approval. The court said that the article was in violation of a number of provisions in the constitution which guarantee personal freedom and gender equality. The decision came after a Kuwaiti woman complained that her husband had refused to give her and their three children their passports and other personal identification documents so he could prevent them from leaving the country.