Arab Gulf women struggle for political equity
Gulf, Politics, 5/8/2002

In a relatively short period of time, the women of the Arab Gulf region achieved a large stride toward making their own way to attain a greater position in the society, their mothers would have never dreamt of.

Although they ridicule the image the western mind has of the Arab woman who is voiceless and "her face does not show and her men relatives can control her fate," however, women in the Arab Gulf states admit that there is still before them much to do before they can play an integrated role in the politics and the economy in their countries; days as such when the majority of women in these conservative and rich societies are deprived of their right to education and expressing themselves in societies where men have total control.

Today, many Arab Gulf women have doctorates many of them from universities in the US and Europe. They can vote and be nominated in the elections in Qatar and Oman and they assume higher government posts in Kuwait; where in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates they run private businesses that bring them millions of dollars.

This week, however, the Arab Gulf women will cross an important barrier in Bahrain which gave woman equal rights to participate in the first local elections to be carried out in the country since three decades.

Previous Stories:
  Agreement on Arab Women Organization ratified   (4/27/2002)
  After Qatar, Bahraini women decide to join municipal elections   (3/21/2002)
  Mrs. Mubarak attends celebrations marking Arab Women's Day in UAE   (2/2/2002)
  Preventing foreign labor in Saudi women shops to avoid seduction   (1/29/2002)
  Al-Riyadh rules out women's participation in the Shoura council   (1/2/2002)
  At last the Saudi woman gets an ID   (12/12/2001)
  Five women appointed as consultants for the ruler of Sharja   (10/5/2001)
  Women in Oman won the right to drive cabs   (5/17/2001)
  Saudi women' share of current bank accounts   (5/3/2001)
  Saudi Arabia: no place for woman before the wheels of the car   (4/27/2001)
  More women at the Omani national council   (10/30/2000)
  The first Saudi women to assume a high post at the UN   (10/26/2000)
  One Jew and four women, including one Christian at Bahrain's Shoura council   (9/28/2000)
  Bahraini women at the Shoura council for the first time   (9/26/2000)
  International concern over the situation of Kuwaiti women   (7/20/2000)
  Qatar to host first international women's tennis tournament   (7/18/2000)
  Dubai to host first fair for the aged and handicapped   (3/18/2000)
  Qatar empower its men and women in first municipal elections today   (3/8/1999)

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