The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has recently received an alarming testimony from a Kuwaiti woman detainee, that was reminiscent of a similar complaint by opposition figure and well-known online activist Lulwa Al-Hussainan, that took place in 2024. We chose to withhold the identity of the woman making the report in order to protect her at such a very difficult time in Kuwait. However, the information included in her testimony has been confirmed by other reliable sources, which confirms their accuracy.

In this recent testimony, she details her arrest in May 2026, and continued detention for two full months. She was held at the State Security Apparatus building first. She also mentioned other women who were detained at the same time. They were blindfolded during periods of time and during interrogations. After the interrogations were conducted, four women including herself, were placed in a freezing, small room for about nine hours. The room was so cold that their hands and feet turned blue and they were not offered any means to keep themselves warm or to access care. 

She testified that the State Security Apparatus treated them in a demeaning way intended to break their will and humiliate them. They were asked to express subservience by crying during the interrogation or else they wouldn’t be moved from this cell. After several weeks they were transferred to the Central Prison. 

The women were transferred to attend their court hearings by special forces and were asked to keep their heads down during the transfer and they were hit on their heads if they did not oblige. They were also heavily shackled by hands and feet in a van with no air conditioning in the excruciating heat. They were kept outside the court for two hours in the van without any air-conditioning until some of the detained women started showing enlarged feet, fainted, and had low blood pressure. The women officers did report that the women needed to get out of the van, but the officials rejected their requests.    

The woman also mentioned that there were male detainees as well, and though she couldn’t see them, she was able to hear their voices as they were tortured in the State Security Apparatus building too. She noted that the male detainees were kept with hands and feet shackles, but their hand shackles were tied to their feet shackles which forced them to walk in painful stress position.

She added that after being transferred to the Central Prison, she was held with other women accused of drug-related offenses in a small crowded cell. The lack of hygienic conditions, poor food service, and inadequate care were common. During their interrogation, she and the other women were subjected to demeaning and inhumane treatment, and were threatened with the revocation of their nationality, threats to harm their family members, or even expulsion from the country. 

While taking a serious personal risk by submitting her testimony, she believes that it must be documented and that an independent investigation of what happened to her and the other women should be carried out to hold everyone involved in their detention and torture accountable and to ensure that such practices are not normalised or repeated, and that the victims of such practices should receive proper reparation according to the standards of International Law.

GCHR condemns the inhumane practices of the State Security apparatus against women prisoners, and demands that these practices be stopped immediately, and that those responsible be brought to justice.

Also, GCHR stands in solidarity with this brave woman and the other women who were subjected to such brutality for posting peaceful opinions online. We also support their demands for adequate measures of accountability and reparation. 

We will continue to address the declining status of human rights in Kuwait and the abuse of power by those in charge, particularly the weaponisation of nationality against citizens just for practicing their rights to freedom of expression on the Internet and beyond.