Women's Rights in Gulf Region Take One Step Forward, One Back

by N. Janardhan

But in nearby Kuwait, the Constitutional Court on Mar. 17 rejected two cases challenging the legality of the country's current men-only election law, dealing a blow to women who have been seeking political enfranchisement for years.

In Saudi Arabia, women have tried to quietly defy the rigid strictures of the Saudi royal family, with scant success. In one of the most famous protests a few years ago, Saudi women -- who are not eligible for drivers' licenses -- drove a convoy of 40 cars through the streets of Riyadh.

These three cases show different aspects of women's political struggle in the Gulf, conditioned by tradition, religion and law.

Women's issues are politicized not only because they are important, but also because of the way they intersect with other political issues and the role they play in defining the relationship between Islam and politics.

On a gender-conscious political canvas in the region that ranges from conservatism to relative liberalism, Bahrain has just surged ahead.

A February decree by King Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa provided for the restoration of the parliament and the transformation of the country of 650,000 people into a constitutional monarchy, with municipal elections set for May and legislative elections on Oct. 24.

This has provided activists like Nadia al Maskati, president of the Bahrain Young Ladies Association (BYLA), the space to work to enhance women's awareness of their new rights. "The forthcoming election is an opportunity which the people in Bahrain got after more than four decades to take part in without any discrimination in the nation-building task," she says.

"It is also a rare opportunity where men and women are entitled to play an equal role and we are trying to encourage women to shed their traditional inhibitions," she explains.

Bahrain has been divided into five municipalities, each with 10 elected members who can work towards establishing facilities such as schools, health care units and community centers. "There's no reason why women should not use this opportunity to help improve the infrastructure in their areas," Nadia al Maskati explains.

But women's groups seeking suffrage in Saudi Arabia cannot yet look that far. At the start of the year, the head of the All-male Consultative Council, Sheikh Mohammed bin Jubair, ruled out naming women to the appointed body at a rare meeting of 50 women with the council members.

The women were seated in separate rooms, and the discussion facilitated by close-circuit television.

"The participation of female citizens in the decision-making process already exists" through inviting women experts to specific debates, Jubair says. "It is not important for women to be physically present, because the goal is to hear the opinion of specialists, be they men or women."

In Kuwait -- the only Gulf country that has a relatively good democratic structure in place -- it has been a case of so near, yet so far.

The election law specifies that only male citizens over 21 years and naturalized men who have held nationality for at least 20 years are eligible to vote. Women have challenged the law because it contradicts the 1962 Constitution guaranteeing equal status for men and women.

While the women in Kuwait vote for the councils of the 57 cooperative societies as well as those for the 42 social and cultural societies, Kuwaiti women have been pressing their political rights at the national level since the 1960s, when the country held its first elections to the 50-seat National Assembly.

However, the closest they got to achieving political rights was in 1999, when the members of parliament narrowly rejected a bill to grant women suffrage and the right to contest parliamentary polls from 2003, as proposed by Emir Sheikh Jaber al Ahmad al Sabah. A similar bill was defeated last year.

In a televised speech as early as 1980, Crown Prince and Prime Minister Sheikh Saad al Abdullah al Sabah said: "The time has come to take note of the position of the Kuwaiti woman and her effective role in society and put forward the matter of the vote for study and discussion."

But in 1985, a fatwa (religious-legal ruling) issued by the Islamists declared that "the nature of the electoral process befits men, who are endowed with ability and expertise; it is not permissible for women to recommend or nominate other women or men."

Conservative Islamic groups argue that women are not yet ready for voting rights because they are not yet "politically mature in a traditional society." They add that if women were enfranchised, they would neglect their children and families.

In addition, they point out that under Sharia religious law, "men are superior to women and that women are weak and incapable of assuming an independent political stand. If they were enfranchised, they would be liable to manipulation by their husbands."

The fatwa provoked uproar amongst the groups like the Kuwaiti Girls Club and Women's Cultural and Social Society. "Islam says a woman should cover her hair and her arms, not her mind," activists protested.

Lulwa al Qitami, a leading Kuwaiti activist, says it is a matter of time before women vote in Kuwait.

"The present fight is not the end, but a new beginning," says Lubna Abbas, a member of the Kuwaiti Women's Affairs Committee. "It is up to each of us to ensure that this message is not lost. It is only a question of where and when (women will get political rights) and these depend on the extent of our steadfastness and commitment to achieve this."

"The protests and court cases are a message to the government and politicians," she explains.

"The court didn't accept my appeal to look into the election," says activist Rula Dashti, who filed one of the cases this month. Still, she hopes the parliament will be able to make it easier for activists to take issues to the constitutional court.

The women's political rights debate in the Gulf goes back to 1971, when the burning of women's "abaya" (black robes) preceded the first woman's conference under the auspices of the Society for the Advancement of the Family in Kuwait.

Society reacted with shock and disbelief, but the recent developments in Bahrain signal that the struggle for women's empowerment in the region has turned a corner and is heading toward what some campaigners say, or hope, is a logical end.