Manama: Kuwaiti authorities have arrested a young woman for cross-dressing.

According to local Arabic daily Al Anba, the 18-year-old woman was taken in police custody after she wore the traditional men’s kandoura and ghotra (headdress) at a shopping mall in the Salmiya area of the capital.

The woman’s unusual looks sparked a fight between a group of young men interested in her and another group that sought to chase them away.

Two shops inside the mall were damaged in the scuffle that was later broken up by police, the paper reported.

Cross-dressing is banned in Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.