- Massage parlors in Kuwait have been ordered to remove doors to all massage parlors due to misused privacy.
- Inspections uncovered various kinds of makeup in parlors, which are surprisingly frequented by underage men.
- Homosexuality and cross-dressing are illegal in Kuwait punishable by up to ten years if the engaged parties are under 21.
- Kuwait has already deported 76 people accused of homosexuality and shut down 22 parlors in the first eight months of the year.
Massage parlors in Kuwait have been given one week to comply with the new rules in order to avoid facing legal action that included shutting down their facility.
Rules conveyed earlier to the owners called for restructuring the parlors to remove doors to all massage rooms and end the complete privacy that is misused.
The owners were told that the new rules applied starting Oct. 1, but a team on a field inspection in Salmiya and Hawalli discovered that most parlors did not comply — prompting them to warn owners and giving them seven days to comply before action is taken, Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported on Tuesday.
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Inspection team
The representative of the municipality on the morals inspection team said that dozens of parlor owners and investors were warned during the evening raid on Monday evening.
"All the cases were related to the failure to remove the doors to the rooms," Zaid Al Enezi said.
"They were warned that non-compliance with the rules would mean shutting down the parlor immediately and without hesitation. There are many unethical practices behind closed rooms that should be addressed.
"We found various kinds of makeup that are normally used by women. We were also shocked that most of the clients were young men less than 18 years old."
Al Enezi added that dealing with unethical practices was not limited to the government and urged Kuwaiti citizens and expatriates to report parlors that do not comply with the rules and regulations.
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Responsibility
"It is a shared responsibility and we need to protect our youth. We succeeded in the past in removing cabins in cafés and we now need to work on ensuring massage parlors do not break the law."
Young men will be sent to the parlors posing as clients to assess the extent of compliance with the rules, he added.
The morals committee is made up of representatives from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Interior and Kuwait Municipality.
Homosexuality and cross-dressing are against the law in Kuwait and people accused of homosexuality could face up to ten years in prison if the engaged parties are under the age of 21.
In August, a local newspaper reported that Kuwait deported 76 people accused of homosexuality and shut down 22 massage parlors in the first eight months of the year.
The gay men were apprehended during nationwide campaigns aimed at enforcing the law regulating massage parlors.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
