Kuwaiti women take part in election for first time

Women cast ballots and ran as candidates for the first time ever in Kuwait today when the conservative country held a municipal by-election.

“They have given us some attention. We became equal,” said Iman al-Issa, 28, as she waited to vote outside a polling station’s female entrance.

The vote to fill the Salmiyah seat in the city’s Municipal Council came almost a year after parliament passed a bill enfranchising women and enabling them to stand in elections. Today’s election is seen as a preview of how women might fare in next year’s parliamentary elections in the oil-rich state.

In the first hours, polling appeared to be light for women voters and moderately heavy for men.

Women, most wearing black abayas, chatted in small groups outside a polling station, which had separate entrances for men and women.

Two of the eight candidates were women: Jinan Boushehri, 32, a chemical engineer who heads the food-testing department at Kuwait Municipality, and Khalida al-Kheder, 48, a US-educated physician and a mother of eight.

The seat became vacant when the council’s speaker, Abdullah al-Mhailbi, was appointed to the Cabinet in February.

Kuwait City’s Municipal Council has 16 members – 10 elected and six appointed by the government.

In May 2005, parliament voted to give women political rights despite strong opposition from Islamists and tribal politicians, who argued that women should not mix with men in campaigns. While Shiite Muslim politicians see no harm in women participating in politics, hard-line Sunni Muslims, the dominant sect in Kuwait, believe a women’s priority is to take care of her family.

Shortly after the bill was passed, the government appointed one woman to the Cabinet and two others to the Municipal Council, breaking the monopoly that men have had on political positions in Kuwait for more than four decades.

Kuwaiti women are educated and have reached high positions in government and the diplomatic corps.

However, those who are involved with politics have to work around conservative traditions that discourage mixing of the sexes.