A heated argument led to a fight erupting in the National Assembly of Kuwait this week, involving members of parliament throwing their shoes at each other in the middle of the session, causing the incident to go viral on social media.
What started as an inflammatory debate led to a round of verbal abuse which led to shoes and papers flying across the room and hitting several MPs, eventually forcing assembly speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim to suspend the session and clear the building.
The argument started when MP Hamdan El-Azmi expressed his opposition to the government presenting an amendment to the distribution of electoral constituencies in the new municipal law, reported Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai .
El-Azmi then went on a rant accusing the government of favoring sectarianism and tribalism and discriminating against Kuwaiti communities and accusing the assembly of not being true to their word.
That's when angered MPs Ali Al-Khamis and Sultan Al-Gaitham confronted El-Azmi and the three started hurling insults at each other, as well as shoes. Despite the fight calming down for a while afterwards, the MPs started arguing again about a different topic when the session resumed leading to another round of the shoe-throwing chaos.
After the incident ended, photos and videos of the fight started trending on Twitter in Kuwait under the hashtags "The National Assembly" and "The Assembly Chaos", with many users expressing their discontent with their elected officials' inappropriate behavior, especially since it occurred in Ramadan when the MPs are supposedly fasting.
One user wrote on Twitter in surprised exclamation: "People break their fast with a look, with a word, but with a shoe?"
Another user wrote: "Ridiculous plays happened in the National Assembly session today and I think that there is no sanctity for fasting and for the holy month and that the only goal is to score imaginary championships before the next elections!"
"What happened in the hall of the Kuwaiti National Assembly is not a personal dispute between unknown individuals so that publication could be covered up, these are representatives of the nation and we have the right to punish and regulate them," wrote another user.
One user took the chance to compare between Kuwait's past legislative body and its present one through photos, writing "between yesterday and today!"
Some users however, just made fun of the situation, with many mocking the MPs and comparing their shoe fight to a football game.
One user used the incident as social commentary as she wrote sarcastically "and then they tell you that a woman's place is at home raising the kids, that she can't hold a position in public office and that political work is only for men."
"Score, don't despair, don't be scared of the goal, be polite to your opponent about your scores, my name is Captain Maged," wrote one Twitter user sarcastically as he mimicked a popular childhood cartoon about a footballer as commentary on photos of the fight.
Another user wrote "the situation of the MPs after the assembly chaos" as they posted a video of a man armed with a variety of slippers and shoes.