Kuwait elects first women MPs | ||||||||||||
Kuwaitis have voted for change in the country's second election in a year by electing its first four women to parliament, which has been male-dominated for almost half a century. Kuwaitis voted 21 new members into the 50-seat parliament and reduced Sunni Muslim groups to a minority as the country grappled with political turmoil that has frozen the country's economy. She also became the country's first female cabinet minister. 'Female revolution'
The three other women elected in the resounding victory are liberals Aseel al-Awadhi, Rola Dashti and Salwa al-Jassar, an independent. All the four women were educated in the United States and hold doctorate degrees in either political science, economics or education.
"Yes all of us are educated, but we also have a woman who won who is married to a non-Kuwaiti, one who is divorced, one who is not yet married, one whose mother is Lebanese," she said. Kuwaiti women, who make up 54.3 per cent of the 385,000 eligible voters, were running in the elections for only the third time after they were enfranchised in 2005. They won the right to vote in 2006. "Everyone is ecstatic, especially among liberal or women's empowerment groups," Jamie Etheridge, the managing editor of the Kuwait Timesnewspaper, told Al Jazeera. "Kuwaiti women are quite liberated and empowered already, but having four female voices in parliament means that issues that are important to Kuwaiti women might get a better hearing," she said. Sixteen female candidates were among the 210 hopefuls standing for the 50-seat parliament. Voter turnout was less than in previous years with only 56 per cent of Kuwaitis going to the polls. | ||||||||||||
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17 May, 2009
Kuwait elects first women MPs
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