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On May 17, 2005, the Kuwaiti parliament granted female suffrage. The bill, which passed with 35 votes for and 23 against, allowed women to vote for the first time and run in parliamentary and local elections.^[1]

On May 3, 2005, MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaie helped create a constitutional roadblock that effectively killed a measure that would have allowed women to participate in city council elections for the first time. The new law which would give Kuwaiti women the right to vote was initially by the National Assembly on April 19, but in accordance with the Kuwaiti constitution it faced a second vote for ratification on May 2. Parliament ended in deadlock on May 2 when 29 members abstained and only 29 voted for it, leaving the legislation just shy of the 33 votes needed.

Efforts to resume voting on the measure on May 3 failed when opponents argued that it had already been rejected and that any new vote would therefore be unconstitutional. In a surprise move, the prime minister, Sheik Sabah al-Jaber al-Sabah, shelved the issue for two more weeks. Because the elections were called under the existing law, women were barred from participating in the imminent municipal elections even if the measure ultimately passed.

Al-Tabtabai argued, "We have no problem with women voting, but we do have a problem with women standing for elections. Islam dictates that the head of the nation must be a man, and we are technically the head of the nation here."^[2]

Jawhar supported Kuwaiti women's right to vote, saying "By relating to Islam I can see -- and I also consulted a lot of experts in this regard -- that there is no contradiction between the women's vote and our Islamic values."^[3]

Four years later, in May 2009, four female candidates won parliamentary seats in a general election.^[4]

[edit] References

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