Aseel al-Awadhi (born 1969) is a former member of the

National Assembly of Kuwait The National Assembly ( ar, مجلس الأمة) is the unicameral legislature of Kuwait. The National Assembly meets in Kuwait City. Political parties are illegal in Kuwait, candidates run as independents. The National Assembly is made up of 50 ...

. She was a professor of philosophy at

Kuwait University Kuwait University ( ar, جامعة الكويت, abbreviated as Kuniv) is a public university located in Kuwait City, Kuwait. History Kuwait University (KU), (in Arabic: جامعة الكويت), was established in October 1966 under Act N. 29 ...

before moving into politics. Al-Awadhi first stood for a seat on the National Assembly in 2008, losing the election but gaining the highest number of votes for a female candidate since women were allowed to stand. She was elected representative of Kuwait's Third District in 2009; a post that she held until 2012.

Education

After studying philosophy at

, al-Awadhi earned her PhD in philosophy at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Upon returning to

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

she became a professor of philosophy at Kuwait University.

Political career

Al-Awadhi first stood in the 2008 general election as part of the

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...

. She gained the highest number of votes received by a Kuwaiti woman since women were allowed to stand for the National Assembly in 2005, although she did not gain enough votes to win a seat. In the 2009 election she was elected as a representative for the Third District, while simultaneously becoming one of the first women to be elected to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

. Along with fellow MP (member of parliament)

Rola Dashti In rail transportation, a rolling highway or rolling road is a form of combined transport involving the conveying of road trucks by rail, referred to as Ro-La trains. The concept is a form of piggyback transportation. The technical challeng ...

, Al-Awadhi chose not to wear a

hijab In modern usage, hijab ( ar, حجاب, translit=ḥijāb, ) generally refers to headcoverings worn by Muslim women. Many Muslims believe it is obligatory for every female Muslim who has reached the age of puberty to wear a head covering. While ...

when she took her seat in the National Assembly. This decision was criticized by Islamist MPs, including prominent Islamic Salafi Alliance member

Ali al-Omair Ali Al-Omair (born 1958) is a Kuwaiti politician. From January 2014 through November 2015, he served as Oil Minister in the cabinet of Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, succeeding Mustafa Jassem Al-Shamali. He was a member of the National Assemb ...

. The

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

rejected a case which claimed that refusal to wear a hijab was a violation of Kuwaiti law. Al-Awadhi lost her seat in the February 2012, but was briefly returned to parliament after the previous parliament was dissolved by the Emir in June 2012. She chose to boycott the December 2012 election in protest of the decision to reduce the number of votes per person from four to one. She chose not to stand in the 2013 election.

References

1969 births Academic staff of Kuwait University Kuwaiti women academics Kuwaiti women in politics 21st-century women politicians Kuwaiti people of Iranian descent Members of the National Assembly (Kuwait) University of Texas alumni Living people {{Asia-academic-bio-stub