A Kuwaiti TV presenter was suspended and will soon be investigated because she called her colleague handsome live on air.
The TV host made the comment during Kuwait Television’s live coverage of the country’s municipal elections which took place over the past weekend.
A video capturing the incident shows the presenter trying to alert her colleague, Nawaf Al Sharraki, that he was on air after she spotted him adjusting a traditional head garment.
“Nawaf, you don’t need to adjust your head garment, you’re handsome as it is,” she is heard saying.
The statement has since gone viral on Kuwaiti social media and has even reached the country’s government, who called for action against the presenter.
According to Al Qabas newspaper, the presenter’s comment sparked outrage among some of the country’s top officials.
It even led Kuwaiti parliamentarian, Mohammad Al Hayef، to send out a public tweet to Mohammad Al Jaberi, the Gulf state’s Minister of Information, asking him to take action against the TV host.
Speaking to the local newspaper, a source from the Ministry of Information said the woman’s suspension is temporary and will not be finalized until she is investigated over the incident.
The source also explained the ministry’s perspective on the matter, saying that many within the governmental institution believe the presenter unintentionally misspoke.
Several people argued that a political news show should be formal, and not contain personal jokes between presenters.
However, others were outraged that the government seemed to go into overdrive over a harmless joke.
‘Leave housing problems, leave problems of corruption, leave problems of waste of public money, leave health problems, leave problems of education, leave the concerns of citizens that have been destroyed by the loans and high prices and the greed of traders – and go to cut the livelihood of a Kuwaiti announcer who said to her colleague “you are handsome”!,’ one Twitter user wrote.
