May 16, 2005

Kuwaiti women win right to vote

The Kuwaiti parliament has voted to give women full political rights.

The amendment to the Kuwait's electoral law means women can for the first time vote and stand in parliamentary and local elections.
[...]
The result, announced by the speaker of parliament, was greeted with thunderous applause from the public gallery where backers of the amendment were gathered.
[...]
The change in the law, which was agreed at the end of a 10-hour session, had previously been blocked by a majority of tribal and Islamist members of parliament.

Many of these had argued that Islamic law prohibited women from positions of leadership.

Go, Kuwaiti sisters!
This is wonderful news; I only hope that the fires of freedom and suffrage ignite all over the Arab world (for men, too, and) for my fellow women who've been suffering so long in the muffled silence of their chadors.