Kuwait backs voting rights for women

KUWAIT: Kuwait's parliament passed a law yesterday granting women the right to vote and run in elections for the first time, …

KUWAIT: Kuwait's parliament passed a law yesterday granting women the right to vote and run in elections for the first time, after pressure from the pro-western Gulf Arab state's government.

"We made it. This is history," prominent activist Roula al-Dashti said. "Our target is the parliamentary polls in 2007. I'm starting my campaign from today."

Outside parliament, young women and men danced and cheered, while passing drivers hooted horns in support.

Parliament speaker Jassim al-Khorafi said the legislation had been passed by a majority of the all-male parliament. There were 35 in favour, 23 against and one abstention on a vote that had met fierce resistance from Islamists and conservative tribal MPs.

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The US has been pressing its allies in the Middle East to bring in political reform, saying a lack of freedom and democracy had fostered Islamic militancy. The Kuwait government wanted the Bill passed before a likely trip by the prime minister to the US next month.

A similar decree for women's political rights issued by Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah was narrowly defeated in 1999.

Prime minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said Kuwait now had the right to appoint women to the cabinet.

"This is a celebration for democracy even though it is 45 years late," said Jassim al-Gitami, a former MP and head of the Kuwaiti Human Rights Association.

Women activists said it was too late for women to vote and run for municipal elections set for June 2nd, after parliament earlier this month delayed a vote on the issue.

Islamists, in agreeing to the law yesterday, stipulated there must be separate polling stations for men and women.

Islamist MP Faisal al-Muslim said he was one of those who voted against the law.

"This is a very conservative society. An MP position in parliament would make women responsible for the masses and that is anti-Islamic," he said.