US-based Bidoon poet says Kuwait should deport her

ROME (AP) — A Bidoon poet and activist who holds U.S. citizenship said Tuesday that Kuwait planned to deport her against her will after she traveled to the oil-rich nation to visit her family.

Mona Karem, 35 years old, said to The Associated Press she was on the Kuwait International Airport floor after being interrogated following her flight from Beirut. She is from Kuwait’s Bidoon community. This group is made up largely of descendants of desert nomads, who are considered stateless under the government.

Kareem stated that she has been exiled since 2011, after she left Kuwait on a scholarship with temporary travel documents. After obtaining U.S. citizenship, Karem was granted a passport and completed a doctorate on comparative literature at State University of New York at Binghamton.

She stated that she was able travel to Kuwait this summer with her U.S. passport to visit her six siblings as well as her parents, who still reside there. Americans can get visas upon arrival in Kuwait, which is an autocratic country run by a ruling Emirate. It’s slightly smaller and one of the top oil producers in the world.

Kuwait’s Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After being asked about her activism and the Bidoon, Kareem stated that she had previously pledged not to engage into any political discussions. Since long, the Bidoon protest against government policies that deny them citizenship and rights. Bidoon is an Arabic word meaning “without.”

Kareem was the owner of a website about Bidoon issues. He had previously spoken out publicly about their treatment in Kuwait.

“This is such an extreme measure,” Kareem told the AP. “This doesn’t happen to U.S. citizens.”

She claimed that authorities ordered her to board a Tuesday night flight back to Beirut, or she would face imprisonment.

An attempt to reach the U.S. Embassy Kuwait was unsuccessful. The State Department, however, did not respond to my request for comment.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.