Kuwaiti authorities deport writer and Bedoon rights defender Dr Mona Kareem

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On 3rd January 2023, the Kuwaiti authorities deported writer and Bedoon rights defender Dr Mona Kareem. As soon as she arrived in Kuwait to visit her family, security at Kuwait International Airport forced Dr Kareem to board a plane bound for Lebanon.

Dr Kareem left Kuwait in 2011 to undertake a scholarship at the State University of New York, and went on to obtain a PhD in comparative literature. She now works as a visiting professor of translation studies at Princeton University and was granted US citizenship during her studies there.

According to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR), all members of Dr Kareem’s family are prevented from travelling abroad due to the fact that they are Bedoon residents of Kuwait. Commenting on the Kuwaiti authorities’ decision to deport Dr Kareem, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Amna Guellali, said,

“This is a mean, appalling, and pointless act of cruelty that serves no purpose other than to send Kuwait’s Bidun community the message that they are not welcome in their own country. The Kuwaiti authorities must urgently allow Mona to safely visit her family at home, and end their oppression of the Bidun people. Amnesty International, yet again, calls for the Bidun people to be given full citizenship.”