Qatari women's municipal election, a new experience to the region
Qatar, Politics, 2/5/1999

Women in Qatar are preparing to take part in the municipal elections set for March 8. It will be the first general election in an Arab Gulf state in which women are permitted to take part as candidates or voters.

So far six women have been nominated as well as 200 men for the elections of the central municipal council in Doha and its outskirts, whose 29 members will be elected through direct voting.

President of social sciences at Qatar University, Juhina Seif al-Essa, said these "elections will ensure the right of half of the society to take part," she proceeded that "participation of women in the elections is but the beginning of a long road."

The candidates (mostly university graduates) denied that their families or the tribes they are affiliated to pressured them, but they admitted they had heard silly comments and criticism from their surroundings.

A questionnaire by the Qatari daily al-Watan said that 72% of the women who responded to the questionnaire supported the participation of women in the municipal elections.

The director of program department at Qatar university and one of the female candidates, Wadha al-Sweidi, asserted that the conservative Qatari society "has its own traditions and everything new will face in the beginning obstacles and hindering."

She admitted that she faces "numerous difficulties," especially criticism addressed to her after her decision to nominate herself for the elections. But she viewed all these "obstacles as secondary before the importance of the event."

The municipal elections in Qatar aim at forming a 29-member municipal council by a direct vote for a term of four years.

Another female candidate, teacher Nasya Darwish Abdullah, said that her electoral program which is composed of ten points aims at "serving the family, protecting the environment and helping the needy."

Previous Stories:
  Sheik Zayeid's wife heads a women's delegation to Qatar today   (1/30/1999)
  Qatari municipal elections date set   (12/2/1998)
  Registration of voters in Qatar starts Saturday   (9/29/1998)

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