Rumaithiya (,

Gulf Arabic Gulf Arabic or Khaleeji ( ' local pronunciation: or ', local pronunciation: ) is a variety of the Arabic language spoken in Eastern Arabia around the coasts of the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, southern Iraq, ...

: ''l-irmēθīya'') is a mainly-residential

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

Hawalli governorate Hawalli Governorate ( ) is one of the six governorates of Kuwait, consisting of the following areas: Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah became governor in 1962. A more recent governor of the Hawalli governorate is Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah ...

and a suburb of

Kuwait City Kuwait City (; ) is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Located at the heart of the country on the south shore of Kuwait Bay on the Persian Gulf, it is the political, cultural and economic center of the emirate, containing Kuwait's Seif Pal ...

. It is divided into twelve blocks. The population of Rumaithiya was 58,127, according to the June 2023 estimate by the . A significant proportion of Rumaithiya's residents are

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

Muslims. Rumaithiya is a major and famous suburb of Kuwait City, and is often employed in jokes and references.

History

The general area of Rumaithiya was already known by the time Syrian traveller Faisal Al-Adhama visited Kuwait in 1942 and wrote about it in his 1945 book ''In The Pearl Country'' (), where he describes it as a "beautiful place neighboring Dimna." (nowadays

Salmiya Salmiya () is an area in Hawalli Governorate in Kuwait. Salmiya is administratively divided into 12 blocks. The blocks located closer to the interior of the district tend to be mostly residential, while those located beside the Persian Gulf c ...

). When the area of modern Rumaihiya was officially drawn in 1964,Al-Nakib، Farah (2014). "Revisiting "Ḥaḍar" and "badū" in Kuwait: Citizenship, Housing, and the Construction of a Dichotomy". International Journal of Middle East Studies it had 13 blocks. However, the 13th block was completely separated from the rest of the area by Kuwait's

5th Ring Road Beijing's 5th Ring Road (, China Road Numbering: S50 (Beijing) is a Ring roads of Beijing, ring road encircling the city about away from the city centre. It takes the form of an expressway and is in length. Being a ring road, it has no natur ...

, a major highway, and its location was more fit as part of

contiguous Contiguity or contiguous may refer to: *Contiguous data storage, in computer science *Contiguity (probability theory) *Contiguity (psychology) *Contiguous distribution of species, in biogeography *Geographic contiguity Geographic contiguity is t ...

. Rumaithiya was a prominent area during the

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, codenamed Project 17, began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country for the next seven months ...

in 1990–1991. The area participated in repeated protests, raised the Kuwaiti flag and refused to acknowledge Iraqi claims and puppet government. Many of the area's residents participated in the and many were executed. A monument dedicated to the memory of the fallen was gifted by a Rumaithiya residents and erected in the main Co-Op square. The bullet impacts from the time can still be seen on some homes. The youngest captive, Zahrāʾ l-iQdēḥi, who was the grandchild of Aḥmad is-Sayyāfi, was captured with her grandfather and his resistance group in Block 11. Is-Sayyāfi's residence housed telecommunication equipment used for communicating with the allied forces, but this was neutralized in January before the coalition's airstrikes.

Places and services

Each block of the area is served by the publicly-run Rumaithiya Co-Op Society for groceries and other basic food and retail services with the main market and mall in blocks 7 and 9. More than 15,000 people are registered shareholders of the Co-Op. Two public

parks A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...

are located in the area, a large one in Block 6 with grass pitches, and a smaller one in Block 8 with grass pitches. In addition, Rumaithiya is home to an exceptionally high number of

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

s (13 schools, not including

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

s and

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

s). However, due to the buildings' age, many of them are

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