(ANSAmed) - DUBAI, MAY 28 - A Kuwaiti mother has lost custody of her children after her ex-husband showed the court a picture of her wearing a bikini in the company of a man lacking blood ties to her. The incident has occurred in an emirate known for being a trailblazer in the Gulf region on the issue of women's rights. ''Their mother could not be trusted with them,'' the father's lawyer, Yousuf Hussein, was quoted by Gulf News as saying. ''My client presented pictures to the court that prove her unfit lifestyle.'' ''The mother cannot be trusted to raise the children properly and the picture as an example indicates a lack of modesty and a deficiency in her morals that erode trust in her and result in public disdain as society assesses her actions morally or religiously,'' the lawyer said.

The court's verdict led to an initiative by Kuwaiti lawmaker Hamdan Al-Azemi, head of the anti-social behavior committee, to submit a proposal to ban ''nudity'' in public areas and hotels.

The concept of nudity - he told the daily Al-Rai, quoted by Gulf News - does not require any additional explanation, as it would be for any other ''negative phenomena'' running counter to local culture or ''the precepts of Islam''. Al-Azemi said that that women's bathing suits were ''alien to the Kuwaiti culture and could not be accepted or tolerated''.

The issue of bikinis has thus become the center of debate raised by conservative politicians, who say that ''wearing a bikini is not a personal choice or a matter of personal freedom,'' but rather ''an assault on local values and sense of decency and modesty.'' The decision by the committee will have to be approved by the parliament before it is referred to the government. If it is accepted by the ministers, it will be enacted as a binding legal text. (ANSAmed).

