Kuwaiti women on Sunday won the right to vote and to run for Parliament.
The new decree, issued Sunday by Kuwait’s Cabinet, unfortunately will not apply to this July’s elections. Assuming that the decree will not be opposed and reversed by the incoming Cabinet, women will begin voting in general elections starting in the year 2003. The decree is expected to survive, given that Deputy Prime Minister Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah and Emir Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah both support it.
Women’s rights activist Massouma al-Mubarak expressed her elation at the Cabinet’s decision, saying, “It’s a great feeling to get something that you have been deprived of for a long time.”
