Kuwait: Women Vote, Run for Office for the First Time

^{Category: International Human Rights}

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Last May, Kuwait's parliament passed a bill granting women the freedom to vote--and the government soon appointed human rights activist Massouma al-Mubarak as planning minister, making her the first woman to serve in a high-level cabinet position in Kuwait. The reforms represent an encouraging trend in moderate Arab states:

Kuwait is the first Gulf Arab state with an elected law-making parliament, but Qatar became the first country in the conservative region to name a woman minister in 2003, and most countries in the area have since followed suit.

This morning, women in Kuwait's Salwa region exercised their right to vote for the first time to fill a vacant seat on the Municipal Council--and two of the candidates, Jinan Boushahri and Khaledah al-Khadher, are the first women to run for political office in Kuwaiti history.