INCREDIBLE:

Women Demand Right to Vote in Kuwait (Greg LaMotte, 07 March 2005, VOA News)

Several hundred women demonstrated in downtown Kuwait City, Monday, demanding women be allowed to vote and run for office in parliament elections - something they have been prevented from doing in Kuwait for more than 40 years. But, this time the government has thrown its full support behind proposed legislation that would give women in the emirate the right to vote.

Under heavy police security, the peaceful demonstration Monday took place outside of the Kuwaiti parliament. Inside, members had gathered to discuss a government request to set a date to debate a bill that would allow Kuwaiti women the right to vote and run as candidates in parliament elections.

Some of the demonstrators say their motivation was the result of an announcement Sunday night that a bloc of 13 Sunni Muslim members of parliament said it would vote against the government-sponsored bill.

But, according to the chairman of the political science department at Kuwait University, Abdul Reda Assiri, those members of parliament are losing their credibility.

"People who have held the traditional justification that a woman's place is at home, women should focus on different issues," said Abdul Reda Assiri. "And, others have held to religious justifications that major decisions made in the society should be made by males. Now, this group of people cannot hold water as far as their rationale or their opposition because there are counter opinions from religions elements that women do participate in the political decision-making, whether as a voter or a member of parliament as in many other Islamic societies."