Kuwait’s #MeToo moment: women denounce sexual harassment in Lan Asket campaign
- A rising number of women have broken taboos to speak out about the scourge of harassment and violence in public
- Talk shows are covering the subject for the first time, while the Lan Asket campaign is helping to expose the daily experiences of women in the Gulf nation
Abrar Zenkawi was cruising towards the beach in Kuwait City when she saw a man waving and smiling in her rear-view mirror.
Elsewhere, this may have been a benign highway flirtation. But in Kuwait, it’s a haunting routine that often turns dangerous. The man pulled up beside her, inched closer and finally drove into her. Zenkawi’s car, carrying her sister, toddler nieces and friend, flipped six times.
“It’s considered normal here. Men always drive way too close to scare girls, chase them to their homes, follow them to work, just for fun,” said Zenkawi, 34, who spent months in hospital with a shattered spine. “They don’t think about the consequences.”
But that may be changing as women increasingly challenge Kuwait’s deeply patriarchal society.
In recent weeks, a growing number of women have broken taboos to speak out about the scourge of harassment and violence that plagues the Gulf nation’s streets, highways and malls, in an echo of the global #MeToo movement.
