First women elected to Kuwait parliament

by René | May 17, 2009 at 02:34 pm

297 views | 69 Recommendations | 14 comments

And there are four of them:

Kuwait City

Kuwaitis voted for change in the Gulf emirate’s second poll in a year, giving women their first seats in parliament and punishing Sunni Islamic groups, according to results released yesterday.
Frustrated at political turmoil that has rocked the wealthy Opec member over the past three years, Kuwaitis voted 21 new faces into the 50-member parliament, reducing Sunni Muslim groups to a minority.

A significant crack has appeared in Kuwait's glass ceiling after four women emerged winners in the Gulf state's parliamentary elections at the weekend.

The victory marked the first time women have won parliamentary seats since given the right to vote and run for office in 2005. For the past 50 years Kuwait's parliament has been the sole preserve of men.

In an election that saw fundamentalist groups lose ground, Massouma al-Mubarak, who was appointed Kuwait's first female cabinet minister in 2005, two US-educated professors, Salwa al-Jassar and Aseel al-Awadhi, and an economist, Rola Dashti, all won seats in the Kuwaiti parliament.

"Frustration with the past two parliaments pushed voters to seek change. And here it comes in the form of this sweeping victory for women," al-Mubarak said today.

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Al-Nisf, a newspaper columnist, said the win by female candidates was an achievement not only for Kuwait but around the region.

"They made it without organised political parties supporting them or a quota system. This is a huge leap forward for Kuwait's democracy," he said.

Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in 1990 played a crucial role in the liberalisation of women's political and social rights. At the time, many women assumed important responsibilities, volunteering in hospitals to compensate for the lack of medical staff, smuggling food, money, and weapons across military checkpoints.

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Jon Azpiri

at 15:02 on May 17th, 2009

Thanks for the story. This is encouraging news.

albertacowpoke

at 15:20 on May 17th, 2009

Good News.

Roy C

at 15:47 on May 17th, 2009

During the Gulf War, a lot of Philippine workers who had escaped from Kuwait prior to the invasion came to Milan.

I talked to a lot of them. There were some terrible tales of foreign women housekeepers and servants being really, really mistreated.

So, this is very good news for Kuwaiti women and for the foreign women dependent on Kuwaiti men for their livelihood.

wleng

at 17:53 on May 17th, 2009

It's good to hear of change happening. Let's hope it continues.

Melayu Boleh (not verified)

at 20:01 on May 18th, 2009

Hi..

great news story..

thanks for posts here..

Paschen

at 18:42 on May 17th, 2009

It is amazing all the Democracies that exist in the middle east and that work well.

SamirJ

at 21:04 on May 17th, 2009

Encouraging News!

jazzyzazzy

at 22:30 on May 17th, 2009

sorry to be so cynical its good news if ! The shiek is not trying to gain political brownie points and she is actually going to end up a fall guy. However if ! she is for real and not controlled by her male counterparts and has the guts to exercise some freedom of speech then yes go yash mack girl go.

Michelle Barron (not verified)

at 15:26 on May 18th, 2009

Yes, this is wonderful news. It's so obvious to me that alot of men in these Arab countries have alot to fear from women. I think the truth is that they fear women because women have something they don't have, that women do something magical and necessary that they cannot do. I'll let you figure out what that is. :) Sexism is stupidity. I realize not all Arab men are bad, but the ones that contribute to oppression of women need to realize THEY are the ones who are the inferior human beings. They make themselves inferior and their countries appear backwards and behind civilization just to pacify their pride and male egos. It's time they realized that having a patriarchal society means having an inferior society.

Show me any culture where women are oppressed and I'll show you a miserable country/culture. Smart men know that if women are happy, everyone is happy!!! It's sheer stupidity to think that you can deny women anything and get away with it. It always comes back to those men who try to oppress women.

The earth is balancing itself. We've had a few thousand years of patriarchy and it's time for women to rule.

René

at 21:01 on May 17th, 2009

Kuwait is not a democracy. It is ruled by a sheikh, who also dissolved the parliament twice in a year.

Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, called Saturday's election – the second in a year – after dissolving parliament two months ago to end an impasse between MPs and the government, which is heavily influenced by the ruling family, over economic reform and alleged corruption.

The clash of wills between parliament and the government has almost halted development at a time when the country is grappling with the global financial crisis and falling oil revenues. Project Kuwait, a plan to boost economic capacity, has never made it beyond committee level because of opposition from some MPs to the involvement of foreign firms in the energy sector.

Although the Islamists – who have opposed the government's economic reforms – lost ground they still form a significant bloc with their allies from the conservative tribal areas. The Islamists saw the number of seats they hold fall to 16 from 24 in the 50-seat assembly. Conservative tribal figures have 25 seats.

It is more complicated than that. All the women who ran had the support of their families and had to belong to the elite (about 38 families).

René

at 21:04 on May 17th, 2009

That kind of treatment is true of most of those Arab countries.

Well, it remains to be seen how well this works out for their women.

René

at 06:15 on May 18th, 2009

We can hope this means something in the long run. Hopeful sign that these women can actually show their faces!

Paschen

at 07:32 on May 18th, 2009

He called the Elections as the Queen of Great Britain would call elections as well. If the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and others are democracies then so is Kuwait.

René

at 08:00 on May 18th, 2009

Perhaps you can call it a limited democracy. The Queen does not call for elections. Maybe some Brits can chime in here.

SOMEGUY (not verified)

at 14:34 on May 29th, 2009

What is a democracy? Whose democracy is better? What is culture? Whose culture is better? is western culture superior ? If so why? Shouldn't people live the way they like? Does the west have a mandate to westernize the world? Does the world want to be westernized? Is the west and its civilization decaying? If so is it trying to take the rest of the world down with it?

Regardless of the answers to these questions, I know one thing I'm positive of. The west (the United states and Europe) take themselves much too seriously and think that they have the answers to all the worlds woes. Wouldn’t it be sad to live in a world where we are all the same.