Kuwait's Constitutional Court on Wednesday overturned an article of the penal code criminalising the imitation of the opposite sex, in a move welcomed by Amnesty International as a "major breakthrough" for transgender rights in the Gulf Arab region.
The court said in a statement on its website that article 198 was unconstitutional because it did not provide "objective standards" to identify the offence, and that the general phrasing risked violating personal freedoms.
Amnesty International said the court in December had accepted a legal challenge to the article, which was amended in 2007 to criminalise "imitating the opposite sex in any way", punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine.
