Following are excerpts from an interview with Kuwaiti political activist Salwa Al-Mteiri, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on July 1, 2011.
Salwa Al-Mteiri: "I thought that if the age of slave-girls was restored in a proper legal fashion, it could be a solution [to many problems], Allah willing."
Interviewer: "Will women and wives in Kuwait welcome the idea of slave-girls, and have their husband go to some office and buy a slave-girl or two? How will they accept it?"
Salwa Al-Mteiri: "The believing woman is content with the law of Allah, and with what her religion requires her to do. In my opinion, this is the best solution to reduce the rate of marital betrayal and the spread of disease. This is a problem not only in Kuwait, but throughout the world."
Interviewer: "Apart from slave-girls, you are demanding that a law be legislated that would permit a Kuwaiti woman to go and buy a husband with special traits from Europe or the Balkan countries. Explain this to me."
Salwa Al-Mteiri: "In my view, a woman's pride is her most precious thing. If she is educated, owns a house, and has financial means, why shouldn't she help a man from a country with a Muslim community? She would help him enter the country, and they would set up a home together."
Interviewer: "But wouldn't she feel that she was buying a husband with her money?"
Salwa Al-Mteiri: "No, she is helping him. Why do we always distort things and not look at the full picture? On the contrary, she is helping him. She pays for the visa so that he can come, and that way she feels she is helping him, and in return, he helps her to start a family, he helps her in life, and he honors her by making her his wife and the mother of his children."
Interviewer: "Do you think that Kuwaiti men will welcome this call? He might say: 'I am a fellow citizen of yours, and you go and bring a husband from abroad?!' I noticed that you said: 'Just like we think about improving the quality of air and we plant a million trees, I am thinking about improving the quality of offspring to come.' You are hinting, in fact, that such husbands have special attributes and are good-looking."
Salwa Al-Mteiri: "That is true. We have many Muslim communities [in the Arab countries], but they come from very poor countries, and I don't think they are very productive when they enter the country. If they were to come from European countries, I think they would improve the country. I have noticed this in Dubai. When they came to Dubai, it turned into a leading country in the world. It became a well-known country. I hope that the same thing will happen to Kuwait. Incidentally, I propose this for the entire Arab world, not just for Kuwait.
"Why did I choose this group? Because some educated women do not agree to be controlled by men. They prefer a husband who is more like a friend to them. As you know, Arab men like to think of themselves as the master of the house, and they consider women to be inferior to them, while European men view women as their friends. Some women like this kind of thing – to be a wife and a friend, and to be respected because she is educated and her family invested in her, so she is not prepared to be looked down on. I think that on the contrary…"
Interviewer: "You said that there are confrontations with Kuwaiti husbands, which lead to divorce. So it is better to turn to the option of importing such a husband, who would do his wife's bidding, obey her, and pamper her, and that way, she would spend the best days of her life with him, without any clashes or fights."
Salwa Al-Mteiri: "Yes, that is what we wish for, and it is what we demand of him. If he violates any clause of the contract, he will bear the consequences…"
