Kuwait on Tuesday announced that women will be allowed to register for the military service, according to local media reports citing the Kuwait army. Kuwait’s deputy prime minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah, who also serves as the minister of defence, announced the ministerial decision to open the registration for women to join the country’s national military service.

During the initial phase, the applicants will serve in the field of medical and military support.

“Kuwaiti women have proven their achievements in several fields, and accordingly the approval was given for women to enter the military corps along with men,” he said.

Kuwaiti women have been serving as police officers for the past two decades, which paved the way for women to join the army. 

Announcing the decision, the defence minister affirmed his full confidence in the ability of Kuwaiti women to bear the hardship of working in the army, according to news agencies.

Kuwait has made significant progress in the last few years in assuring the rights of women to work in various fields dominated by men. In 2005, the gulf nation passed a bill to grant women the right to vote and run for elected office. The bill paved the way for four female candidates occupying parliamentary seats out of fifty available in a general election a few years later.

The number of female judges has also risen to 15 after 7 new female judges were introduced in May.