Kuwait proceeds towards realizing women's political rights
Kuwait, Politics, 3/1/2004

It seems that the Kuwaiti government has found the way that enables it to introduce women's right to be a candidate and to vote despite the strong opposition from most of the social strata in Kuwait. This is however, through linking any future political reform to approving these rights.

Observers consider that the Kuwaiti government has started to implement this very policy. This, however, seems clear in the coolness in which the government deals with the demands raised by the parliamentarians to decrease the number of electoral circles from 25 circles to five or 10, and this is in order to control the election operation and blocks the way before vote buying .

In a way that reflects government's determination to provide the women her rights, the Kuwaiti prime minister Sabah al-Ahmad stressed, in a tour he had made in al-Jahraa province, where there is a high density of Bedouins and tribes which reject women rights, that giving the woman the political rights is an American desire, and therefore it will be debated again at the nation's council.

In May 2003, the Kuwaiti cabinet issued an amendment on the municipal council law providing for giving the woman her rights to be a candidate and elect members of the council, but the council did not discuss it yet. The Kuwaiti parliament in 1999 refused twice an Emir order for giving woman political rights.

Despite of all these obstacles, the Kuwaiti law activists are sure they will get their rights. The Higher education ministry secretary, Rasha al-Sabbah, said that the political rights of the Kuwaiti women are coming eventually. For her part, board member of the Kuwaiti teachers Union, Khoula al-Oteiki, the leading figure in the Social reform society which close to the Muslim brothers said that all countries which deprived women of their political rights are confident that woman's participation in all economic, political, social, industrial and educational fields is indispensable.

Previous Stories:
  Kuwait calls for understanding western demands for reforms; Moussa: the reforms will fail if not fully discussed   (2/21/2004)
  Kuwaitis ask for reform to establish democracy   (12/12/2003)
  Sabah al-Ahmad government: woman's rights is beginning of al-Islah fight   (7/21/2003)
  On Kuwait's women's rights for participating in the elections   (7/8/2003)

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