After driving over a potholed street in one of the world’s wealthiest petrostates, Fatima Al-Sane joined an online protest. Instead of taking her complaints to a local authority or railing against the government, she posted a banned rainbow flag.
The global LGBTQ rights symbol gained wider resonance during the World Cup in Qatar, but in the neighboring conservative Gulf state of Kuwait it’s taken on a more unusual role. It’s not being used to rally for rights, but to bait authorities into fixing a country citizens like Al-Sane say is falling behind as some politicians focus on issues like gender segregation rather than the economy.
“It was just basically a message, about the priority crisis, weak education, weak medical and health sectors, no development,” said Al-Sane, 42, who works in the public sector. She posted the image to poke fun at conservative Kuwaiti lawmakers, some of whom have hit out against rainbow-colored toys and Christmas trees in the Muslim-majority state.
In a region that’s plowing ahead with everything from hosting global sporting events and building whole new cities in the desert to sending a mission to the moon, Kuwait stands out more for what it’s not doing.
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