US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT796

UNCLAS KUWAIT 000796 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR BERNS IN NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, KDEM, KWMN, KU, WOMEN'S POLITICAL RIGHTS 
SUBJECT: KUWAITI GOVERNMENT BEGINS TO PRESS PARLIAMENT ON 
GRANTING VOTING RIGHT TO WOMEN 
 
REF: KUWAIT 405 
 
1. If Kuwait's senior leaders have their way, Kuwaiti women 
soon will have the right to join men at the ballot box. The 
GOK asked the National Assembly on February 20 to hold a 
special session to debate a draft law granting women the 
right to vote, pending since May 2004. This move comes four 
days after ten MPs filed a motion to refer the election law 
to the constitutional court on the grounds that Article 1, 
which grants voting rights only to men at least 21 years old, 
is unconstitutional. The GOK seeks to avert a parliamentary 
vote on the MPs' motion by advocating action on the draft 
bill. Some MPs fear a court ruling of 'unconstitutional' 
would result in the dissolution of the Government, a claim 
the GOK denies. 
 
2. The MPs' motion seems to have reinvigorated GOK efforts to 
expand voting rights. While the Council of Ministers approved 
the draft law in May 2004, it has languished in Parliament's 
Interior and Defense Committee, a requisite step before the 
full Assembly can vote on it. Senior MPs have repeatedly told 
Emboffs that the GOK would have to press the Parliament to 
act. Shaykh Nasser Sabah Al-Sabah, special advisor to the 
Crown Prince, declared in an Arab Times editorial that Kuwait 
"should not be an anachronism and abnormality among Islamic 
and Arab countries" and that "democracy will be incomplete if 
one half of the people are excluded from (elections)." Shaykh 
Nasser is the eldest son of the Prime Minister, a vocal 
advocate for women's political rights. 
 
3. Meanwhile, Social Affairs and Labor Minister Faisal 
Al-Hajji urged lawmakers to pass the bill in the current 
parliamentary term that concludes in June. Passage requires a 
simple majority of the 65 MPs and Ministers. The 13-member 
Islamist bloc and a number of tribal MPs are expected to 
oppose this effort to grant the vote to women. However, the 
fledging Islamist Ummah Party (reftel), a Salafi-sponsored 
group with three backers in the Parliament but not recognized 
by the GOK, announced its support for full women's rights on 
February 21. The group of ten proponents of a constitutional 
court review (including former speaker Ahmed Abdul Aziz 
Saadoun, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mohammed 
Al-Sager, Yousef Al-Zalzalah, Hassan Jowhar, Abdul Wahab 
Al-Haroun and Ali Al-Rashid) represent liberal, independent 
and Shi'a MPs. At least seven additional MPs also support 
female suffrage. 
 
4. Comment: With the exception of Justice Minister Ahmad Baqr 
who previously voted against women's suffrage, the GOK has 
vocally supported granting political rights to women but has 
done little to seek legislation of these rights. Change, 
however, may be afoot. The realization that it has a 
terrorist problem may push the GOK to support real change in 
order to counter Islamist radicals, whom it now increasingly 
views as a threat, rather than a potential ally to be 
co-opted. At the same time, liberals who have long supported 
political rights for women may take advantage of an opportune 
moment to press hard on these issues. End comment. 
 
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