L-Right (Aseel Al-Awadi, Rola Dashti, Salwa Al-Jassar and Masouma Mubarak) L-Three: Stephanie McGehee/Reuters; right, Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP-Getty Images
Our faith in the system and people of Kuwait was reaffirmed today.
Following years of uncertainty and gridlock, the people of Kuwait have voted for change. I am certainly in high spirits, and relieved. We were hoping one or two women would make it in, we got four!
Some newcomer independents also won and 'Hadas' took a big hit in the 3rd District (my district). The 'fatwas' and mudslinging by xenophobic elements towards women and progressive candidates backfired, reenergizing and intensifying support for them.
Congratulations to the qualified ladies and newcomers.
It's a beautiful day for Kuwait. Who woulda thunk, FOUR women, and such capable, talented, visionary women? I get the impression people cast their votes very carefully this year, not on the basis of gender but on the basis of hoping for that change you are talking about above. Alf Mabruk, Kuwait. :-)
Congrat. Hilaliya
Maybe next time Tabtabaie will be overthrown... Then he can go to Thailand for a little R&R.
What I would really love to see is a confrontation between him, Rola and Aseel. Well, a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent really isn't good sport, is it?
I'm honestly crossing my fingers for this! I'm hoping that things move forward in our government!
A small step into democracy compared to what's happing in the rest of the world, where there are women elected at all level of national institutions (President like in Liberia, Finland, Chile, and MPs in oother countries like Rwanda, India, etc) but it is a big step in a tradionalist country in Kuwait, a country where it takes too long to have th smallest change.
Thanks Abdoulaye for passing by and your comments. And a special thanks to your excellent work as French translator for 'Global Voices.'
I don't think what transpired in Kuwait (in regards globally) was a "small step", on the contrary it was a large step, especially in a climate that tends to be open to 'fatwas' and influence from ultra-conservative elements (tribal, religious etc).
Kuwait has women ministers, ambassadors, CEOs, world-class female business leaders, and so forth - all that was missing were women as parliamentarians - and the latter got it not through a 'quota' system, political appointments or running in an area devoid of male candidates, they got it through blood, sweat and tears, augmented by different progressive movements.
You mentioned Liberia, Chile and Rwanda for example - countries that at one time or another were in the grip of civil instability, terrorism, civil war etc - Kuwait is a completely different case, the democratic mechanism here (constitution, parliament, elections, freest press in the Arab world for example) help lead to this.
Our democratic tools, were aligned in a way that furthered democracy.
And that doesn't happen often.
But I do agree, that 'change' in Kuwait tends to come very slowly.
And their it was...... the wake up call.....
Its a sentence i got through sms from a friend:
" One million Kuwaiti's are thinking by electing 4 women, Kuwait will change lol".
I am back on earth again....