MP Maryam Al Dhaen pushes for bill seeking pension coverage for stay-at-home wives

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

A draft law allowing housewives to pay 9 per cent of their chosen income category to join Bahrain’s pension system was put before Parliament on Sunday.

It aims to cover around 60,000 women who have spent years working unpaid but remain shut out of retirement and disability benefits.

MP Dr Maryam Al Dhaen, who is pushing the reform, said the government would chip in 6 per cent, with contributions starting from the lowest pension tier and topping out at BD500 a month.

“This is about giving stay-athome-wives the security they deserve,” she said. “Homemakers work as hard as anyone, yet they have no financial safety net. It’s time we recognised their role properly.”

One-off payouts

If passed, the law would give housewives access to pensions, as well as one-off payouts if they leave the scheme.

It would also bring in more contributors to the pension fund, helping to steady the books as it deals with a growing shortfall.

Dr Al Dhaen cites Bahrain’s Constitution which promises security in old age, illness, and job loss, yet homemakers remain left out of the system.

Valuable

“A housewife’s work is just as valuable as any wage-earner’s,” said Dr Al Dhaen. “They’ve held households together for decades — it’s only fair they have something to fall back on.”

Other countries have gone down this road already.

Jordan has 93,000 homemakers enrolled in a voluntary pension plan.

Iraq’s system asks participants to chip in 5 per cent of their chosen income while the state covers 15 per cent.

New chapter

The law, which rewrites part of Bahrain’s 1976 Social Insurance Law, would add a new chapter for homemakers’ pensions.

The Minister of Finance and National Economy would be in charge of rolling it out, working off advice from the Social Insurance Organisation’s board.

Dr Al Dhaen urged fellow MPs to get behind the plan, saying, “This goes beyond stay-at-home wives — it’s about ensuring families don’t struggle when it matters most. No woman who has spent her life running a household should reach old age without financial security.”