US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT927

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 000927 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2010 
TAGS: PREL, KDEM, KWMN, PGOV, KU, WOMEN'S POLITICAL RIGHTS 
SUBJECT: SPEAKER SAYS NATIONAL ASSEMBLY COULD GO EITHER WAY 
ON WOMEN'S VOTE 
 
REF: A. KUWAIT 796 
     B. KUWAIT 405 
     C. 99 KUWAIT 7303 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) During a brief exchange at a social event on March 5, 
National Assembly Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi told Ambassador 
that the Assembly vote on women's political rights would 
either pass or fail by one or two votes.  The Speaker said 
that the government could decide to handle the issue through 
two other maneuvers, but he continues to believe a National 
Assembly vote would be the best way to make the decision. 
 
2.  (C) Al-Khorafi's second best option would be for the 
government to dissolve the parliament and grant women 
immediate rights to vote and hold office through Amiri 
decree.  Then the next Assembly would be partially elected by 
women voters.  (Note: The previous attempt to grant women's 
suffrage by decree in 1999, issued when the Assembly was in 
recess, proved divisive and fell short by two votes when the 
Assembly reconvened. Critics blamed the government for 
failing to encourage undecided MPs to support the effort. 
Interestingly, Al-Khorafi was one of the two dissenters.  In 
the option Al-Khorafi is raising, the decree would only take 
effect if introduced after the current Assembly -- elected 
for a 4-year term in 2003 -- were dissolved.  Any subsequent 
vote on the decree would be by an Assembly elected by women 
voters.  End note.)  Al-Khorafi said that this option is not 
very attractive since it calls into question the democratic 
credentials of the country. 
 
3. (C)  A third option is for the government to take the 
matter to the constitutional court.  Al-Khorafi said this was 
a poor option because it could be used as a precedent to call 
into question some of the privileges now afforded to women, 
or other issues such as the lack of voting rights for 
military personnel. 
 
4. (C)  Finally, Al-Khorafi said that those women who will 
organize and be effective politically will not be the 
relatively secular and modern segment of the population but 
rather will come from the more organized and determined 
traditional and conservative religious groups.  He said this 
phenomenon is already evident in elections in universities -- 
Islamists have led the Kuwait's Student Union for the past 25 
years -- and other non-governmental organizations. 
 
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Visit Embassy Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
 
You can also access this site through the 
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LEBARON