History made in Kuwait, Women go for their Rights!
Women made history in Kuwait on Tuesday by voting and running for office for the first time in a local by-election after the conservative Gulf state granted them suffrage last year.Polls opened for the vote to fill a single seat in the 16-member Municipal Council. The rest of the members were elected or appointed last year. Some 28,000 voters, including 16,000 women, are eligible to cast ballots for the six men and two women standing.
Last May, parliament passed a government-sponsored bill granting suffrage to women who had fought for their political rights for more than four decades.
Tuesday's election paves the way for women to take part in 2007 parliamentary polls, the first since Kuwait's new ruler, Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, took office this year after the death of his half-brother.
Kuwait’s Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah said in remarks published on Tuesday that the political participation of women would boost Kuwait's international standing.
And while visiting a polling station with first female cabinet minister, Planning Minister Massouma al-Mubarak and members, the Prime Minister said yesterday: "We say to Kuwaiti women 'God bless you'. You are welcome to participate in all spheres of life."
I predict that between five to ten years Kuwaiti women will get rid of their head scarves to bring a new leading liberal progressive experience to the Gulf region states. Congratulations to all Kuwaiti women who participated in yesterday's voting process!
posted by Freedom For Egyptians @ 11:26 AM
19 comments
19 Comments:
In response to:
I predict that between five to ten years Kuwaiti women will get rid of their head scarves to bring a new leading liberal progressive experience to the Gulf region states.
In the words of a Jordanian, liberal, unveiled, liberal feminist academic affiliated to the University of Durham:
'It's what's in the head that counts, not on it'
Headscarves, in as far as women are not coerced into wearing them - are a non-issue.
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I really like the trendy hijabs that Kuwaiti women wear. They show so much creativity and individuality.
What does this got to do with the head scarves? (not that I wear one )
Kuwaiti women can bring a new leading liberal progressive experience to the Gulf region states without getting rid of their head scarves.
ya i don't understand about headscarves,wats worng with them if they weren't forced
so women are getting their rights in Kuwait, and the Egyptians are losing them?
Way to go Egypt?
No chador! Alright! Way to go girls!
226 visitors from Iran. I wonder who could they *cough (IRI gov't employees!)* be?!?
I wonder which 4 of the 1.6 billion people in China have access to the internet!?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^6
so why should jews wear the head cap,or why should sieks where their turban.
prup, early Christians and Jews wore similar headscarves. It's just a tradition. I could specualte about nomadic tribes living in a desert would take to wearing scarves that protected them from sun and sand, but I'd just be speculating. I don't have an opinion about women who voluntarily wear hijab, but I do oppose women being made to wear hijab, by law or by peer pressure. Although, I have to admit... I make certain assumptions about women who wear a headscarve here in the US... I've had some negative experiences with them. It's their right to wear a hijab, and it's my right not to associate with them, and not to voluntarily work with them. I don't associate with evangelical Christians voluntarily either, but they're a lot harder to spot unless they happen to have a Bible in their hands and they're ringing your doorbell :)
To Sam and all muslim haters out there: READ before you speak as if your hate is facts
"So who burned the Library of Alexandria? Plutarch blamed Julius Caesar.Edward Gibbon blamed Theophilus.According to Ibn al-Kifti's (History of the wise), whose story was repeated by Bishop Gregory Bar Hebraeus, the remaining books were destroyed by general Amrouh following orders of Caliph Umar (see Luciano Canfora "The vanished Library"). The collection may have ebbed and flowed as some documents were destroyed and others were added. For instance, Mark Antony was supposed to have given Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls for the Library long after Julius Caesar is accused of burning it."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria
Anon, I'm guessing you intended that comment for another post?
Hi Sara,
I mean no offense, but if you get sexually harrassed when you don't wear a veil, wearing it isn't really voluntary, is it?
I'm not French, Sara, but women here in teh US don't get sexually harrassed, walking down the street. No matter what they wear. The solution is to teach the men not to act that way, not to cover yourself up to try to hide from it. I say again, this doesn't seem voluntary to me.
And sexual harrassment is never physical. It's almost always verbal. If it's physical, it's not called sexual harrassment, it's called sexual assault.
Both are criminal acts in the most western countries.
Sara,
Clothing is not protection for a woman. It is society, not the clothing, that does that. You were harassed for failing to wear a veil. In your society, there are preachers who tell young men that it is ok to act badly toward girls without veils. That is why they do it.
Think about. In what countries are women well-treated? Where can they vote? Drive? Travel freely by themselves? Attend any school funded by the government? Work at any job? Get paid the same as a man doing the same job?
Are those countries the ones where veils are prevalent?
leave them alone , folk...most of those muslims are too stubbon to recognize and admit the world and them themselves are changing..it's a matter of fact but let them wear their stupid veils to show off their religiousness...to be a good believer doesn't mean to hide your nose from the sun and people. Lots of them are too ugly to show their faces in public,,that's the main point for their love of traditional clothing....we have 17% of muslims in my country - most of them have seen a hijab only in the historic movies or news from the arab countries...Let them do whatever they wish but attack or bother us...Larissa , Russian
by the way, Sara..I've been to Egypt lately...some people are nice, some are unfriendly, more impolite young men than in my country but fewer than in the UAE. iT'S NOT BAD THE WORLD IS DIFFERENT. I couldn't walk in 12am...a crowd of youngsters of 20-30 was following me and my daughter..we had to ask a policeman for help...it's not fun and a sign of disrespect towards foreigners. Anyway, we liked Egypt very much...be happy there!
I find it amusing when self-righteous goons such as anonymous (well, one of them anyway) and others on this thread attempt to draw a link between the lack of progression in the Middle East and the wearing of the headscarf.
As someone who has been wearing a hijab for 3 years now and quite happily lives in a liberal, Western country, I fail to see how my dress choice has the potential to relegate my country to the pits of backwardness.
Prup's suggestion that the veil and suppression of womens rights are synonymous is an absurd statement to say the least. Granted, a number of Muslim women in underdeveloped countries are forced to wear the veil on the insistence of ignorant and uneducated regimes who dont know anybetter. But to make a blanket statement such as that is unwarranted.
Im a university student as are many of my veiled friends who will one day graduate and make a difference to their society. Wearing the hijab does not impinge on my rights nor my freedoms. The greater proportion of women in the world wear it out of religious conviction and it is not your right to question nor mock the fulfillment of a religious requirement.
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