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Women Demonstrate to Get the Vote in Kuwait

On Tuesday (3-12), forty Kuwaiti women lawyers, scientists and academics participated in a rare public demonstration to demand the vote and the right to stand for parliament. Some of the women waving placards outside the only elected legislature in Gulf Arab states had been members of the civilian resistance during Iraq’s 1990-91 occupation. They accuses the government of reneging on a promise it made at that time to give women political rights. Women’s rights activists had hopes of winning the vote after liberation in 1991 because of the bravery shown by women in the resistance to Iraqi rule. During the occupation, the emir had said he would consider giving women the vote.

Following sporadic demonstrations over the 30 years they have fought for political rights, on Tuesday the women planted a blackhorn tree on the central reservation of a highway outside the building to symbolize the strength and endurance of Kuwaiti women. Women in Kuwait hold top positions in civil service, oil industry, and education, and are allowed to wear Western clothes and drive cars, yet they lack social and political equality with men.

Sources:

Reuters - March 12, 1996

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