Galal Fakkar | Arab News
JEDDAH: The new law for the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI) gives greater powers to businesswomen, Fahd Al-Sultan, secretary-general of the council, said yesterday.
“The new law, which replaces the existing 50-year-old law, will be passed within a few days,” he said.
Speaking to Arab News after attending a seminar on “Developing a new concept and culture of chamber elections” at the JCCI, Al-Sultan said the new law was designed to provide the council with necessary flexibility.
“The law has already been studied by the committee of experts at the Council of Ministers and has been passed to the minister of commerce and industry for his endorsement before presenting to the Cabinet for final approval,” he said.
Al-Sultan said the new law gives businesswomen a greater role in the council as well as in the development of the country.
“Even if only women are elected to the CSCCI board, there is nothing in the law to prevent it,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, three businesswomen, Madhawi Al-Hassoun, Lamy Suleiman and Nashwa Taher, yesterday announced their decision to contest the upcoming election to the JCCI board. They said they wanted to deepen the concept of women’s participation in elections to civil organizations in the country.
Showing posts with label elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elections. Show all posts
Monday, June 29, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Opinion: Still looking for the western feminists
BBC News Magazine
A POINT OF VIEW
Clive James
Women who believe liberal values exploit their sexuality have something much greater to fear - the jackboot of dictatorship, says Clive James.
In a week when the troubled parliament of Britain continued to swamp the front pages with tales of fiddle, fraud and the incredible disappearing Speaker, there wasn't much room for news about the parliaments of other countries, but there was one story in the middle pages that might have been calculated to remind us of why democracy really matters. The parliament in Kuwait has just acquired its first four women MPs.
Kuwait is by no means, a perfectly constituted democracy. As far as I can figure out, there is a ruling family whose Emir chooses the government and calls elections for parliament. But women have now been elected to the parliament, by popular vote. It should hardly need saying that this would have been unlikely to happen if Saddam Hussein had been allowed to continue to rule the country by terror, but let's leave his awful memory aside for a moment, if we can, and dare to put forward a general reflection.
Democracy is the best chance for women. Or if that sounds too naive, too pro-western perhaps, then let's put it this way. The absence of democracy is seldom good news for women. Or, to get down to bedrock, if women can't vote for women, then they haven't got many weapons to fight with when they seek justice.
My own view, which I'm ready to hear contested, is that this is the main reason why some feminists in the west have been so slow to get behind those women in the world's all too numerous tyrannies who have to risk their lives to say anything.
It's just too clear a proof that men have a natural advantage when it comes to the application of violence. When you say that women have little chance against men if it comes to a physical battle, you are conceding that there really might be an intractable difference between the genders after all.
Ideological feminists in the West were for a long time reluctant to concede this, because they preferred to believe that there was no real difference, and that all female handicaps were imposed by social stereotyping that could be reversed by argument. But this belief was really possible only in a society where the powers of argument had a preponderance over the powers of violence.
And since many western feminists are still convinced that the social stereotyping of the West is the product of fundamental flaws within liberal democracy itself, they have a tendency to believe that undemocratic societies are somehow valuable in the opposition they offer to the free countries which the feminists are so keen to characterise as not free enough.
I have to pick my words carefully here, because this is the touchiest theme I have ever tackled in these broadcasts, but I do think it's high time to say that if feminist ideologists find liberal democracy unfriendly, they might consider that the absence of liberal democracy is a lot less friendly still.
Helping to give me courage, here, finally, is that quite a lot of women are already saying it. But they tend not to be western pundits. They tend to be women out there, in the thick of a real battle not just an argument. Why their bravery doesn't shame more of our feminist pundits I hesitate to say. It certainly shames me.
This importance of democracy, or at any rate of an amelioration of tyranny, should have become clear when, after Saddam Hussein was deposed, the first provisional government in Iraq included women members. But it didn't become clear, because too many of our commentators wanted to call the provisional government a puppet government, under the control of the US.
Vote best hope
Even as it became steadily more clear that nothing in Iraq was under the control of the US, feminists in the West continued to do a stunning job of ignoring the risks that women in Iraqi public life were running. An Iraqi female MP could get murdered and it was held to be a natural result of US imperialism, almost as if she had been murdered by George W Bush in person.
But she hadn't been. She had been murdered by local men who were making an example of her. They feared what she would bring: the spectre of women claiming an importance equal to that of men.
Last year the excellent Australian feminist journalist Pamela Bone finally died of cancer, but while she was still fighting it she published, in 2005, in response to what she regarded as the thunderous silence that had greeted the stand taken by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an article called "Where are the western feminists?" What Pamela Bone meant was, that she was amazed why so many of her colleagues couldn't see, or didn't want to see, that democracy was the best hope for women.
Pamela Bone was well aware that there is a necessary quarrel about how democracy can be brought about in countries that don't have it, and I hasten to concede that of the two possible main views about the invasion of Iraq, for example, my own view, in favour, soon became the minority view. But Pamela Bone couldn't see how there could be any doubt that women in the countries without democracy were in a battle that they were bound to lose if the men could prevail by force.
Men will always monopolise the means of violence if they can. Women can learn to shoot guns, but there are no all-female armies, and even the Amazons were probably a myth. Women, on the whole, would naturally like to do something else, whereas an army, for too many men, is a home away from home, and often their only home.
It's the only home for the junta in Burma. The junta is in the news again this week because it found a pretext for locking Aung San Suu Kyi into prison, instead of just leaving her helpless under house arrest. The terms of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest were that she should receive no visitors, and some poor demented American
Slow martyrdom
Vietnam veteran made sure that the terms were violated by swimming to her front door.
Like many a head-case he probably just wanted to discuss his theories about how aliens control everything, but the all-male military junta in Burma really does control everything and here was their chance to dump Aung San Suu Kyi into jail until the next election is over.
Aung San Suu Kyi not only has the stature, she has the right, to lead the government of her county. If the public got a chance to say so, she would do so, and bring immeasurable improvement not only to Burma but the whole area.
I say all this because in some moment of optimism I allowed my name to get put on the masthead of the organisation in this country that campaigns for her release, the Burma Campaign, but I have done nothing else for her before today, mainly because I don't believe that my going to dinner with like-minded humanitarians is likely to help much.
What she needs is an invading army, but even if there were one available, armed intervention, since the Iraq incursion, has been out of fashion: no doubt with good reason, but those appalled by the moral cost of toppling a tyrannical regime are still stuck with counting the moral cost incurred by leaving it alone.
The regime in Burma will most likely go on being left alone. Aung San Suu Kyi's slow martyrdom makes the cost obvious. The current best plan for getting her sprung is to bring persuasion to bear on India so that India will bring pressure to bear on the junta, and so on until she grows old and grey.
A better world
Being who she is, she grows old slowly, and at the age of 63 she looks like her own daughter, but time is still against her. If time is all you've got going for you, it isn't much. What justice needs, when it is ranged against naked force, is a contrary force, and the fact that there isn't one is enough to reduce the onlooker to despair.
Despair can coarsen one's judgment. I knew enough about what Saddam Hussein and his talented son Uday were doing to women to want that regime toppled. The price of doing so might have seemed too high, but at least now, six years later, it is no longer official policy to rape a woman in front of her family. There may be unofficial forces still on the loose in Iraq who would like to do that, but the government no longer does it.
Fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan still seems worth it when you have read about what the Taliban want to do with any woman who seeks an education, but it's easy to despair when you think of how hard it is to stop them.
Sometimes despair overwhelms us when we read of just a single so-called honour crime in which the men of a family have ruined the life of a daughter for what seems no reason at all, and the men walk free because that's the culture, and the culture runs the government. I felt despair when Aung San Suu Kyi got taken off to jail, and for her I thought I had no despair left.
But heartbreak feels out of place when we see this news story about the four women MPs in Kuwait, and there's a photo of one of them, rejoicing with her friends. I'm looking at the photo right now. Her name is Aseel al Awadhi. She has a merry face and an exultantly elevated thumb. It will be a better world for all of us if women like her are free to do well, and if she could hear us it would be our simple duty to say good luck to you. And another duty, alas, to say: mind how you go.
A POINT OF VIEW
Clive James
Women who believe liberal values exploit their sexuality have something much greater to fear - the jackboot of dictatorship, says Clive James.
In a week when the troubled parliament of Britain continued to swamp the front pages with tales of fiddle, fraud and the incredible disappearing Speaker, there wasn't much room for news about the parliaments of other countries, but there was one story in the middle pages that might have been calculated to remind us of why democracy really matters. The parliament in Kuwait has just acquired its first four women MPs.
Kuwait is by no means, a perfectly constituted democracy. As far as I can figure out, there is a ruling family whose Emir chooses the government and calls elections for parliament. But women have now been elected to the parliament, by popular vote. It should hardly need saying that this would have been unlikely to happen if Saddam Hussein had been allowed to continue to rule the country by terror, but let's leave his awful memory aside for a moment, if we can, and dare to put forward a general reflection.
Democracy is the best chance for women. Or if that sounds too naive, too pro-western perhaps, then let's put it this way. The absence of democracy is seldom good news for women. Or, to get down to bedrock, if women can't vote for women, then they haven't got many weapons to fight with when they seek justice.
My own view, which I'm ready to hear contested, is that this is the main reason why some feminists in the west have been so slow to get behind those women in the world's all too numerous tyrannies who have to risk their lives to say anything.
It's just too clear a proof that men have a natural advantage when it comes to the application of violence. When you say that women have little chance against men if it comes to a physical battle, you are conceding that there really might be an intractable difference between the genders after all.
Ideological feminists in the West were for a long time reluctant to concede this, because they preferred to believe that there was no real difference, and that all female handicaps were imposed by social stereotyping that could be reversed by argument. But this belief was really possible only in a society where the powers of argument had a preponderance over the powers of violence.
And since many western feminists are still convinced that the social stereotyping of the West is the product of fundamental flaws within liberal democracy itself, they have a tendency to believe that undemocratic societies are somehow valuable in the opposition they offer to the free countries which the feminists are so keen to characterise as not free enough.
I have to pick my words carefully here, because this is the touchiest theme I have ever tackled in these broadcasts, but I do think it's high time to say that if feminist ideologists find liberal democracy unfriendly, they might consider that the absence of liberal democracy is a lot less friendly still.
Helping to give me courage, here, finally, is that quite a lot of women are already saying it. But they tend not to be western pundits. They tend to be women out there, in the thick of a real battle not just an argument. Why their bravery doesn't shame more of our feminist pundits I hesitate to say. It certainly shames me.
This importance of democracy, or at any rate of an amelioration of tyranny, should have become clear when, after Saddam Hussein was deposed, the first provisional government in Iraq included women members. But it didn't become clear, because too many of our commentators wanted to call the provisional government a puppet government, under the control of the US.
Vote best hope
Even as it became steadily more clear that nothing in Iraq was under the control of the US, feminists in the West continued to do a stunning job of ignoring the risks that women in Iraqi public life were running. An Iraqi female MP could get murdered and it was held to be a natural result of US imperialism, almost as if she had been murdered by George W Bush in person.
But she hadn't been. She had been murdered by local men who were making an example of her. They feared what she would bring: the spectre of women claiming an importance equal to that of men.
Last year the excellent Australian feminist journalist Pamela Bone finally died of cancer, but while she was still fighting it she published, in 2005, in response to what she regarded as the thunderous silence that had greeted the stand taken by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an article called "Where are the western feminists?" What Pamela Bone meant was, that she was amazed why so many of her colleagues couldn't see, or didn't want to see, that democracy was the best hope for women.
Pamela Bone was well aware that there is a necessary quarrel about how democracy can be brought about in countries that don't have it, and I hasten to concede that of the two possible main views about the invasion of Iraq, for example, my own view, in favour, soon became the minority view. But Pamela Bone couldn't see how there could be any doubt that women in the countries without democracy were in a battle that they were bound to lose if the men could prevail by force.
Men will always monopolise the means of violence if they can. Women can learn to shoot guns, but there are no all-female armies, and even the Amazons were probably a myth. Women, on the whole, would naturally like to do something else, whereas an army, for too many men, is a home away from home, and often their only home.
It's the only home for the junta in Burma. The junta is in the news again this week because it found a pretext for locking Aung San Suu Kyi into prison, instead of just leaving her helpless under house arrest. The terms of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest were that she should receive no visitors, and some poor demented American
Slow martyrdom
Vietnam veteran made sure that the terms were violated by swimming to her front door.
Like many a head-case he probably just wanted to discuss his theories about how aliens control everything, but the all-male military junta in Burma really does control everything and here was their chance to dump Aung San Suu Kyi into jail until the next election is over.
Aung San Suu Kyi not only has the stature, she has the right, to lead the government of her county. If the public got a chance to say so, she would do so, and bring immeasurable improvement not only to Burma but the whole area.
I say all this because in some moment of optimism I allowed my name to get put on the masthead of the organisation in this country that campaigns for her release, the Burma Campaign, but I have done nothing else for her before today, mainly because I don't believe that my going to dinner with like-minded humanitarians is likely to help much.
What she needs is an invading army, but even if there were one available, armed intervention, since the Iraq incursion, has been out of fashion: no doubt with good reason, but those appalled by the moral cost of toppling a tyrannical regime are still stuck with counting the moral cost incurred by leaving it alone.
The regime in Burma will most likely go on being left alone. Aung San Suu Kyi's slow martyrdom makes the cost obvious. The current best plan for getting her sprung is to bring persuasion to bear on India so that India will bring pressure to bear on the junta, and so on until she grows old and grey.
A better world
Being who she is, she grows old slowly, and at the age of 63 she looks like her own daughter, but time is still against her. If time is all you've got going for you, it isn't much. What justice needs, when it is ranged against naked force, is a contrary force, and the fact that there isn't one is enough to reduce the onlooker to despair.
Despair can coarsen one's judgment. I knew enough about what Saddam Hussein and his talented son Uday were doing to women to want that regime toppled. The price of doing so might have seemed too high, but at least now, six years later, it is no longer official policy to rape a woman in front of her family. There may be unofficial forces still on the loose in Iraq who would like to do that, but the government no longer does it.
Fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan still seems worth it when you have read about what the Taliban want to do with any woman who seeks an education, but it's easy to despair when you think of how hard it is to stop them.
Sometimes despair overwhelms us when we read of just a single so-called honour crime in which the men of a family have ruined the life of a daughter for what seems no reason at all, and the men walk free because that's the culture, and the culture runs the government. I felt despair when Aung San Suu Kyi got taken off to jail, and for her I thought I had no despair left.
But heartbreak feels out of place when we see this news story about the four women MPs in Kuwait, and there's a photo of one of them, rejoicing with her friends. I'm looking at the photo right now. Her name is Aseel al Awadhi. She has a merry face and an exultantly elevated thumb. It will be a better world for all of us if women like her are free to do well, and if she could hear us it would be our simple duty to say good luck to you. And another duty, alas, to say: mind how you go.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Kuwait: Al-Naki hosts political symposium on women's rights
Kuwait Times
By Nawara Fattahova
KUWAIT: Lawyer and former candidate Najla Al-Naki held an electoral symposium with candidates and intellectuals at her office in Salmiya on Monday evening. The symposium was related to the coming elections and the discussions focused mainly on women's rights. The speakers also focused on some of the mistakes made by the previous parliament.
According to some of the speakers, approving women's political rights did not come at the right time. Women gained their political rights in the summer of 2005 and they had less than two months to prepare for elections, which, according to writer Ghaneema Al-Fahad was "mission impossible." "If we want to paint a room, it needs more than a month to dry. The elections are always held in summer," Al-Fahad said.
Kuwaiti women are oppressed in comparison to men. "Men always receive support, such as those candidates who received checks from outside Kuwait. Meanwhile, nobody is supporting the female candidates. Why doesn't the government support women? There are many creative Kuwaiti women who were not supported. If any woman is elected in this election, it will be thanks to her tribe that supports her. But the tribe doesn't give me a house or salary. We are proud to be loyal to the tribe, but our main loyalty must be to Kuwait," she added.
Although there is democracy in the West, women still have not reached equal status with men. "In European countries, the number of female politicians in parliaments is much less than men, although the women there have reached senior positions such as the post of prime minister. In Kuwait, women also occupy many key positions, and I expect that they will reach the parliament in this election," said Farhan Al-Farhan.
The speech of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was very emotional and impressed many people. "I was impressed by the Amir's speech so I decided to run in this election. I think we need new people to enter the parliament. I didn't prepare a plan and I don't have political ambitions, but I believe I can help in making a positive change. There are many MPs who caused strain, problems and corruption in parliament, and this is wrong and has to be changed," said Manal Al-Ahmad, candidate from the secon
d district.
Manal has an opinion in regard to solving some of the political problems. "We should start with the family, and the woman is at the center of it. Women should take their rights; in this way, she will be able to help successfully raise coming generations. The second step is to choose qualified teachers for our children, especially in the first grades of education. The bedoon issue is a time bomb that should be solved. They don't have any other country besides Kuwait, and they don't have the Kuwaiti national
ity. They should at least be given basic human rights. Finally, the problem of citizens with two nationalities is a catastrophe and should be solved," she added.
Voters must make the right decision by voting for the better candidate. "To have a good parliament, our choice must not be based on sectarian or tribal aspects. Each voter has the right to vote for four different people. So, if the husband or father of any woman told her to vote for a certain person related to her, she can give him one vote and she still has three votes that can be used according to her beliefs," said Abdullah Al-Hajiri, candidate in the third district.
People complain about the parliament's performance, but they were the ones who voted for them. "We can blame ourselves for the problems happening now. About 56 percent of the voters are women, and not a single one of them succeeded in winning. Fifty MPs are men who succeeded in winning although men make up only 44 percent of voters. There are certain traditions followed in Kuwaiti society that makes the woman a follower of the man, but she doesn't have to be without an opinion at all. It is not true if the
y say that she was pulled to vote for a certain candidate because she has free will in front of the ballot box, where nobody sees her except God. There she can make the right choice," said political activist Dr Ayid Al-Mana.
By Nawara Fattahova
KUWAIT: Lawyer and former candidate Najla Al-Naki held an electoral symposium with candidates and intellectuals at her office in Salmiya on Monday evening. The symposium was related to the coming elections and the discussions focused mainly on women's rights. The speakers also focused on some of the mistakes made by the previous parliament.
According to some of the speakers, approving women's political rights did not come at the right time. Women gained their political rights in the summer of 2005 and they had less than two months to prepare for elections, which, according to writer Ghaneema Al-Fahad was "mission impossible." "If we want to paint a room, it needs more than a month to dry. The elections are always held in summer," Al-Fahad said.
Kuwaiti women are oppressed in comparison to men. "Men always receive support, such as those candidates who received checks from outside Kuwait. Meanwhile, nobody is supporting the female candidates. Why doesn't the government support women? There are many creative Kuwaiti women who were not supported. If any woman is elected in this election, it will be thanks to her tribe that supports her. But the tribe doesn't give me a house or salary. We are proud to be loyal to the tribe, but our main loyalty must be to Kuwait," she added.
Although there is democracy in the West, women still have not reached equal status with men. "In European countries, the number of female politicians in parliaments is much less than men, although the women there have reached senior positions such as the post of prime minister. In Kuwait, women also occupy many key positions, and I expect that they will reach the parliament in this election," said Farhan Al-Farhan.
The speech of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was very emotional and impressed many people. "I was impressed by the Amir's speech so I decided to run in this election. I think we need new people to enter the parliament. I didn't prepare a plan and I don't have political ambitions, but I believe I can help in making a positive change. There are many MPs who caused strain, problems and corruption in parliament, and this is wrong and has to be changed," said Manal Al-Ahmad, candidate from the secon
d district.
Manal has an opinion in regard to solving some of the political problems. "We should start with the family, and the woman is at the center of it. Women should take their rights; in this way, she will be able to help successfully raise coming generations. The second step is to choose qualified teachers for our children, especially in the first grades of education. The bedoon issue is a time bomb that should be solved. They don't have any other country besides Kuwait, and they don't have the Kuwaiti national
ity. They should at least be given basic human rights. Finally, the problem of citizens with two nationalities is a catastrophe and should be solved," she added.
Voters must make the right decision by voting for the better candidate. "To have a good parliament, our choice must not be based on sectarian or tribal aspects. Each voter has the right to vote for four different people. So, if the husband or father of any woman told her to vote for a certain person related to her, she can give him one vote and she still has three votes that can be used according to her beliefs," said Abdullah Al-Hajiri, candidate in the third district.
People complain about the parliament's performance, but they were the ones who voted for them. "We can blame ourselves for the problems happening now. About 56 percent of the voters are women, and not a single one of them succeeded in winning. Fifty MPs are men who succeeded in winning although men make up only 44 percent of voters. There are certain traditions followed in Kuwaiti society that makes the woman a follower of the man, but she doesn't have to be without an opinion at all. It is not true if the
y say that she was pulled to vote for a certain candidate because she has free will in front of the ballot box, where nobody sees her except God. There she can make the right choice," said political activist Dr Ayid Al-Mana.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Kuwait: Women benefit from media coverage
Kuwait Times
KUWAIT: Two lecturers at Kuwait University agreed that women were the ones who mostly benefitted from media coverage of parliamentary campaigns, because it was an easy option for those who found it difficult to attend rallies. Mass communication professor Dr Khalid Al-Qihs said that there was a close link between democracy and media, which helped many women in their evaluation of the agenda of candidates. "The conservative nature of many Kuwaiti families makes the movement of women among campaign circles l
imited in some cases, which gives importance to media coverage of rallies and gatherings," he explained.
Al-Qihs noted that democracy and free media were two faces of a single coin, and media helped voters make the right decision and provided them with all the necessary information about those involved in the race and the performance of the government. Moreover, he said that the district system amendment made it more difficult for a candidate to communicate directly with voters, which in turn prompted many to seek the media. On her part, mass media professor Dr Heba Al-Musallam explained that although women a
ccounted for the greatest percentage of people benefiting from media coverage of campaigns, it remained "an insufficient source (of information).
She noted that different media outlets were government by their own policies and thus focused on the candidates that fell in line with these policies, explaining that the "media framing" theory revolved around the media's focus on one aspect and overlooking others. Al-Musallam also noted that the short campaigning time was not enough for candidates to present their agendas to voters in a thorough manner, and again the media offered a suitable alternative. The launch of satellite channels that were speciali
zed in following candidates' campaigns and seminars is also useful, she said. - KUNA
KUWAIT: Two lecturers at Kuwait University agreed that women were the ones who mostly benefitted from media coverage of parliamentary campaigns, because it was an easy option for those who found it difficult to attend rallies. Mass communication professor Dr Khalid Al-Qihs said that there was a close link between democracy and media, which helped many women in their evaluation of the agenda of candidates. "The conservative nature of many Kuwaiti families makes the movement of women among campaign circles l
imited in some cases, which gives importance to media coverage of rallies and gatherings," he explained.
Al-Qihs noted that democracy and free media were two faces of a single coin, and media helped voters make the right decision and provided them with all the necessary information about those involved in the race and the performance of the government. Moreover, he said that the district system amendment made it more difficult for a candidate to communicate directly with voters, which in turn prompted many to seek the media. On her part, mass media professor Dr Heba Al-Musallam explained that although women a
ccounted for the greatest percentage of people benefiting from media coverage of campaigns, it remained "an insufficient source (of information).
She noted that different media outlets were government by their own policies and thus focused on the candidates that fell in line with these policies, explaining that the "media framing" theory revolved around the media's focus on one aspect and overlooking others. Al-Musallam also noted that the short campaigning time was not enough for candidates to present their agendas to voters in a thorough manner, and again the media offered a suitable alternative. The launch of satellite channels that were speciali
zed in following candidates' campaigns and seminars is also useful, she said. - KUNA
Monday, May 11, 2009
Yemen: Program of supporting women's access to parliament launched
SANA'A, May 10 (Saba) - The Cultural Development Foundation in cooperation with the Partnership Program of the European Union inaugurated here on Sunday the program of supporting women's access to parliament.
Chairwoman of the foundation Raufah Hassan reviewed the situation of the women political participation and activities of the foundation in order to promote this participation.
She also pointed out to the objective of establishing "supporters networks" which was set up to create awareness over the importance of women participation in political life as well as to increase the number of women candidates for elections.
For his part, the European Commission charge de affairs Michele Cervole d'UrSo noted to the important role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in finding solutions to support the representation of the women in Parliament.
The executive director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Peter Williams reviewed the experiences of a number of European and third world countries in this area, affirming the need to seek a support for the Yemeni women regardless of the electoral support.
He considered the Quota system is the best in Yemen.
FJ/AH
Saba
Chairwoman of the foundation Raufah Hassan reviewed the situation of the women political participation and activities of the foundation in order to promote this participation.
She also pointed out to the objective of establishing "supporters networks" which was set up to create awareness over the importance of women participation in political life as well as to increase the number of women candidates for elections.
For his part, the European Commission charge de affairs Michele Cervole d'UrSo noted to the important role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in finding solutions to support the representation of the women in Parliament.
The executive director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) Peter Williams reviewed the experiences of a number of European and third world countries in this area, affirming the need to seek a support for the Yemeni women regardless of the electoral support.
He considered the Quota system is the best in Yemen.
FJ/AH
Saba
Kuwait: Road to Assembly I
Kuwait Times
Published Date: May 10, 2009
By B Izzak, Staff Writer
KUWAIT: Kuwaitis go to the ballots on May 16 to elect the 13th National Assembly and the second in a year. Sixteen women are among 210 candidates competing for the 50 seats in five constituencies. Each constituency elects 10 members while each voter is allowed to cast a maximum of four votes.
Here is a detailed analysis on each electoral district, highlighting the main races, political groups, main candidates and other issues.
First Constituency
Sharq-Rumeithiya-Salmiya
The first constituency has 19 residential areas starting from Sharq in Kuwait City to Mishref in the south. The main areas are Rumeithiya, Salwa, Salmiya, Bayan, Hawally, Dasma, Shaab and Daiya. The district has 69,132 voters, including 37,519 women and 31,613 male voters. The largest area in terms of voters is Rumeithiya with 15,752 voters, Salwa with 12,333 and Bayan with 10,838 voters. The constituency is the third largest in terms of size of voters after the fifth and fourth districts.
Forty-five candidates are contesting the elections including all the 10 MPs in the outgoing National Assembly in addition to three former MPs from previous assemblies. There are also two female candidates - former minister Maasouma Al-Mubarak and prominent women activist Fatima Al-Abdali.
The constituency is divided almost equally between Sunni and Shiite voters. It has a large contingent of tribal voters from the Awazem tribe. The constituency also has a good number of liberal and Sunni Islamist voters, and a strong presence of well-known Kuwaiti families like the Awadhi and Roumi.
Two main lists are fighting the election officially. Both are Shiite while the rest are contesting on individual bases. The National Islamic Alliance (NIA) and its allies are fielding four candidates. They are former MPs Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari of the NIA, former minister and MP Youssef Al-Zalzalah and the representative of the Hasawi Shiites Hamad Taher Buhamad.
The list is tipped to bag at least three seats because it has strong support among Shiite voters. The addition of Zalzala's and Buhamad's supporters to the NIA voters has the list in a very strong position. The second list is Peace and Justice which is fielding former MP Saleh Ashour and Hassan Naseer, the secretary general of the group. The list also has a strong following among Shiite voters and is tipped to win at least one seat. Other Shiite candidates include former MPs Hassan Jowhar and Hussein Al-Qa
llaf, who are running as independent and have strong chances of maintaining their seats.
On the Sunni side, all five former MPs are seeking re-election. They include Mukhled Al-Azemi who is backed by Islamists and from his Awazem tribe. Hussein Al-Huraiti, a former justice minister, is also banking on support from his Awazem tribe. Others include Abdulwahed Al-Awadhi and Abdullah Al-Roumi, who are backed by the strong support of their respective families.
Former MP Mohammad Al-Kandari is the official candidate of the Islamic Salaf Alliance and is drawing support from his large Kandari family. But he has two other contenders from the same family, Abdullah Al-Kandari and Jassem Al-Kandari, who was a member in the 2006 Assembly.
The Awazem tribe did not hold its tribal primary like last year and thus its votes are expected to be divided. Besides Mukhled and Huraiti, former MP Ahmad Al-Shuhomi, Mubarak Al-Harees and Mohammad Hamad Al-Rasheed are other leading Awazem candidates. Rasheed is also backed by the Islamic Constitutional Movement. Wasmi Khaled Al-Wasmi, the son of former MP Khaled Al-Wasmi, is a liberal candidate also banking on support from the Awazem and liberals.
Among the two women, Maasouma Al-Mubarak is tipped to make history by becoming the first female MP after she made history in 2005 by becoming the first Kuwaiti female minister. Shiites had all their five members from this constituency and are expected to maintain their numbers or even increase it by a sixth seat.
Published Date: May 10, 2009
By B Izzak, Staff Writer
KUWAIT: Kuwaitis go to the ballots on May 16 to elect the 13th National Assembly and the second in a year. Sixteen women are among 210 candidates competing for the 50 seats in five constituencies. Each constituency elects 10 members while each voter is allowed to cast a maximum of four votes.
Here is a detailed analysis on each electoral district, highlighting the main races, political groups, main candidates and other issues.
First Constituency
Sharq-Rumeithiya-Salmiya
The first constituency has 19 residential areas starting from Sharq in Kuwait City to Mishref in the south. The main areas are Rumeithiya, Salwa, Salmiya, Bayan, Hawally, Dasma, Shaab and Daiya. The district has 69,132 voters, including 37,519 women and 31,613 male voters. The largest area in terms of voters is Rumeithiya with 15,752 voters, Salwa with 12,333 and Bayan with 10,838 voters. The constituency is the third largest in terms of size of voters after the fifth and fourth districts.
Forty-five candidates are contesting the elections including all the 10 MPs in the outgoing National Assembly in addition to three former MPs from previous assemblies. There are also two female candidates - former minister Maasouma Al-Mubarak and prominent women activist Fatima Al-Abdali.
The constituency is divided almost equally between Sunni and Shiite voters. It has a large contingent of tribal voters from the Awazem tribe. The constituency also has a good number of liberal and Sunni Islamist voters, and a strong presence of well-known Kuwaiti families like the Awadhi and Roumi.
Two main lists are fighting the election officially. Both are Shiite while the rest are contesting on individual bases. The National Islamic Alliance (NIA) and its allies are fielding four candidates. They are former MPs Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari of the NIA, former minister and MP Youssef Al-Zalzalah and the representative of the Hasawi Shiites Hamad Taher Buhamad.
The list is tipped to bag at least three seats because it has strong support among Shiite voters. The addition of Zalzala's and Buhamad's supporters to the NIA voters has the list in a very strong position. The second list is Peace and Justice which is fielding former MP Saleh Ashour and Hassan Naseer, the secretary general of the group. The list also has a strong following among Shiite voters and is tipped to win at least one seat. Other Shiite candidates include former MPs Hassan Jowhar and Hussein Al-Qa
llaf, who are running as independent and have strong chances of maintaining their seats.
On the Sunni side, all five former MPs are seeking re-election. They include Mukhled Al-Azemi who is backed by Islamists and from his Awazem tribe. Hussein Al-Huraiti, a former justice minister, is also banking on support from his Awazem tribe. Others include Abdulwahed Al-Awadhi and Abdullah Al-Roumi, who are backed by the strong support of their respective families.
Former MP Mohammad Al-Kandari is the official candidate of the Islamic Salaf Alliance and is drawing support from his large Kandari family. But he has two other contenders from the same family, Abdullah Al-Kandari and Jassem Al-Kandari, who was a member in the 2006 Assembly.
The Awazem tribe did not hold its tribal primary like last year and thus its votes are expected to be divided. Besides Mukhled and Huraiti, former MP Ahmad Al-Shuhomi, Mubarak Al-Harees and Mohammad Hamad Al-Rasheed are other leading Awazem candidates. Rasheed is also backed by the Islamic Constitutional Movement. Wasmi Khaled Al-Wasmi, the son of former MP Khaled Al-Wasmi, is a liberal candidate also banking on support from the Awazem and liberals.
Among the two women, Maasouma Al-Mubarak is tipped to make history by becoming the first female MP after she made history in 2005 by becoming the first Kuwaiti female minister. Shiites had all their five members from this constituency and are expected to maintain their numbers or even increase it by a sixth seat.
Kuwait: Protesters slam 'infidel' charge
Kuwait Times
Published Date: May 10, 2009
By Hussain Al-Qatari, Staff Writer
KUWAIT: A number of Kuwaitis held a rally in front of the National Assembly yesterday to protest recent accusations by an Islamist candidate. Thawabet Al-Ummah, a religious movement led by fourth constituency candidate Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi, issued a statement on Wednesday in which it claimed that what was said by third constituency candidate Dr Aseel Al-Awadhi in a widely-watched YouTube video makes her an "infidel" and that she must "repent and beg for forgiveness.
The YouTube video that appeared on May 5 shows a still picture of Al-Awadhi and edited audio clips previously recorded without permission during one of her classes at Kuwait University where she teaches. In the audio clips, she makes a reference to a verse in the Holy Quran that talks about hijab (the Islamic head cover) and its historical context in accordance with Tafsir Al-Tabari, a commentary and exegesis book on the Holy Quran written by prominent historian and scholar Muhammad Al-Tabari. Many extremi
sts accused her of corruption and immorality, the latest of which was a column in a newspaper calling her "irreligious".
Expressing irritation towards such allegations, first constituency candidate and former minister of health Dr Massouma Mubarak said at the rally yesterday that Kuwaiti women were slandered for asking for their political rights in 2005, and were attacked for running for elections in 2006 and 2008, but it is time for such accusations to stop. "They said that a woman who votes without taking permission of her husband or father is a sinner. This is not acceptable. We have to tell them to stop. Stop implementin
g religion to your own desire. Stop messing up democracy. Stop marginalizing humans for your own gain," she said to the applause of the protestors.
Political activist Ali Khajah objected the random and biased accusations of Al-Awadhi being an infidel, stressing that Kuwait is a democratic country. He said that everyone is entitled to have their opinion, but no one has the right to use religion for their own needs and to make such decisions regarding whether someone is an infidel or a Muslim, or whether they are going to heaven or hell. He warned against such extremist behavior, saying that it can lead to murder. "Kuwait is Kuwait of freedom. Kuwait is
Kuwait of culture, of advancement. Yes, there are dark aspects, but they will go away and Kuwait will come back as it was. Kuwait, my country, may you be safe and glorious!" he said.
A representative of Kuwait's National Democratic Alliance, Anwar Juma, said that the accusations of extremist Islamists must be answered to with the same level of ruthlessness. "They have not one speck of respect for Kuwaitis and nationalism. They attacked harshly with their statements." He elaborated that such religious affiliations have no positive stances to be remembered with, giving examples of how when they were in control of Kuwait University's students union, they simply called the invasion of Ira
q to Kuwait a "disagreement between the two countries." Juma asked "Is this how they describe the barbarian actions by Iraqi soldiers against Kuwait's citizens and residents?
Former MP Meshari Al-Osaimi in his speech predicted the end of extremist Islamic powers in Kuwait in the field of politics. "They only issued this fatwa because their faction is dying. It is dying, and they have noticed that people are leaning more towards nationalism after extremist Islamism failed to take the country anywhere towards advancement." He said that this does not mean Kuwaitis have no respect for religion, drawing the line between Islam as a religion and Islamism as the political employment of
Islam for political interests. "This is not the first time that women participate in the elections. But now that they (extremists) sensed the threat of women on their position, they felt the need to do anything in order to curb voters from supporting female candidates," he said.
Published Date: May 10, 2009
By Hussain Al-Qatari, Staff Writer
KUWAIT: A number of Kuwaitis held a rally in front of the National Assembly yesterday to protest recent accusations by an Islamist candidate. Thawabet Al-Ummah, a religious movement led by fourth constituency candidate Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi, issued a statement on Wednesday in which it claimed that what was said by third constituency candidate Dr Aseel Al-Awadhi in a widely-watched YouTube video makes her an "infidel" and that she must "repent and beg for forgiveness.
The YouTube video that appeared on May 5 shows a still picture of Al-Awadhi and edited audio clips previously recorded without permission during one of her classes at Kuwait University where she teaches. In the audio clips, she makes a reference to a verse in the Holy Quran that talks about hijab (the Islamic head cover) and its historical context in accordance with Tafsir Al-Tabari, a commentary and exegesis book on the Holy Quran written by prominent historian and scholar Muhammad Al-Tabari. Many extremi
sts accused her of corruption and immorality, the latest of which was a column in a newspaper calling her "irreligious".
Expressing irritation towards such allegations, first constituency candidate and former minister of health Dr Massouma Mubarak said at the rally yesterday that Kuwaiti women were slandered for asking for their political rights in 2005, and were attacked for running for elections in 2006 and 2008, but it is time for such accusations to stop. "They said that a woman who votes without taking permission of her husband or father is a sinner. This is not acceptable. We have to tell them to stop. Stop implementin
g religion to your own desire. Stop messing up democracy. Stop marginalizing humans for your own gain," she said to the applause of the protestors.
Political activist Ali Khajah objected the random and biased accusations of Al-Awadhi being an infidel, stressing that Kuwait is a democratic country. He said that everyone is entitled to have their opinion, but no one has the right to use religion for their own needs and to make such decisions regarding whether someone is an infidel or a Muslim, or whether they are going to heaven or hell. He warned against such extremist behavior, saying that it can lead to murder. "Kuwait is Kuwait of freedom. Kuwait is
Kuwait of culture, of advancement. Yes, there are dark aspects, but they will go away and Kuwait will come back as it was. Kuwait, my country, may you be safe and glorious!" he said.
A representative of Kuwait's National Democratic Alliance, Anwar Juma, said that the accusations of extremist Islamists must be answered to with the same level of ruthlessness. "They have not one speck of respect for Kuwaitis and nationalism. They attacked harshly with their statements." He elaborated that such religious affiliations have no positive stances to be remembered with, giving examples of how when they were in control of Kuwait University's students union, they simply called the invasion of Ira
q to Kuwait a "disagreement between the two countries." Juma asked "Is this how they describe the barbarian actions by Iraqi soldiers against Kuwait's citizens and residents?
Former MP Meshari Al-Osaimi in his speech predicted the end of extremist Islamic powers in Kuwait in the field of politics. "They only issued this fatwa because their faction is dying. It is dying, and they have noticed that people are leaning more towards nationalism after extremist Islamism failed to take the country anywhere towards advancement." He said that this does not mean Kuwaitis have no respect for religion, drawing the line between Islam as a religion and Islamism as the political employment of
Islam for political interests. "This is not the first time that women participate in the elections. But now that they (extremists) sensed the threat of women on their position, they felt the need to do anything in order to curb voters from supporting female candidates," he said.
Kuwait: Women see hope in upcoming elections
Kuwait Times
Published Date: May 10, 2009
By Hussain Al-Qatari, Staff Writer
KUWAIT: As May 16 draws near, hopes seems to be presiding the views of female voters. Even after the issuance of the recent fatwa forbidding voting for women, the supporters of the female a great majority still sees that change is only possible if women reach the Parliament. Kuwait Times conducted a survey to find out about the various views and reasons behind women's support in female candidates.
The young generation of Kuwaiti women believe that for women to win the elections is a statement that needs to be made. Fay Al-Najjar believes it is a leap towards change and acceptance of development. "Before we think of solutions, we have to locate the roots of the problems that we have. Radical solutions for problems are much needed in our country. We treat the crises we are undergoing, which I can best describe as a gushing wound, with a sorry Band-Aid," she said.
Fay explained what she described as a 'gushing wound,' saying, "There is tension between sects, between tribals and non-tribals and between conservative extremists and liberal extremists. This is not something to readily accept. We need to fix this and promote tolerance, and Kuwait cannot do that if it keeps its women stuck where they are." Aisha Al-Suwaidan thinks the female presence will add more sophistication to previous MPs dialogue. "This will make male representatives rethink their strategies and th
e way they debate," she said, adding jokingly that the presence of women will in any case make things better.
Batool Al-Baloushi, 33-year old, echoed Aisha's sentiment. She said she is going to vote for a woman because she strongly believes that Kuwait desperately needs to have women in its Parliament. This conviction stems from her seeing how dialogue has deteriorated immensely in the National Assembly throughout the previous decade. She mused, "Generally speaking, men don't act all crazy in the presence of women, or when dealing with women. So I believe we will be able to listen to more articulate dialogue rathe
r than screaming and fighting in parliamentary sessions when women make it (in).
Sarah Al-Qallaf believes that more than one woman will make it in this year's elections. She said if she could, she would have an all-women parliament. "Men have proved to us over the years that they are hard- headed and not accepting of other views. This is not something that I have made up; watch their debates in parliament and see with your own eyes," she said.
Sarah, 31, says that the demands of her generation are generally career- related. She said that throughout her eight years of work, she saw male colleagues who have come after her get promotions and increments, while she makes less than them and works harder. "When people see that women are capable of making decisions and representing others in the parliament, I hope that their view of us will change and they will treat us as equals at work," she said. She says that she has seen women be more active and in
volved this year than the previous years.
Even her mother, a woman in her seventies, has been attending different candidates' seminars and debating about the country's politics. Salma Al-Enezi, 56-year- old retired teacher says that she is certain of women's presence in the next parliament, but she is worried that many of the female candidates, especially the ones she called 'educated' would waste time competing with men. She said that she wishes those female candidates will prove to be deserving of the voters' trust. Female future MPs should not
waste their time competing with men, but rather focus on what Kuwaiti women want and need. She said, "Some educated candidates I met in person speak my language, but there are other ones who only blabber with big terms and jargon about economy and financial stimulus plans.
Published Date: May 10, 2009
By Hussain Al-Qatari, Staff Writer
KUWAIT: As May 16 draws near, hopes seems to be presiding the views of female voters. Even after the issuance of the recent fatwa forbidding voting for women, the supporters of the female a great majority still sees that change is only possible if women reach the Parliament. Kuwait Times conducted a survey to find out about the various views and reasons behind women's support in female candidates.
The young generation of Kuwaiti women believe that for women to win the elections is a statement that needs to be made. Fay Al-Najjar believes it is a leap towards change and acceptance of development. "Before we think of solutions, we have to locate the roots of the problems that we have. Radical solutions for problems are much needed in our country. We treat the crises we are undergoing, which I can best describe as a gushing wound, with a sorry Band-Aid," she said.
Fay explained what she described as a 'gushing wound,' saying, "There is tension between sects, between tribals and non-tribals and between conservative extremists and liberal extremists. This is not something to readily accept. We need to fix this and promote tolerance, and Kuwait cannot do that if it keeps its women stuck where they are." Aisha Al-Suwaidan thinks the female presence will add more sophistication to previous MPs dialogue. "This will make male representatives rethink their strategies and th
e way they debate," she said, adding jokingly that the presence of women will in any case make things better.
Batool Al-Baloushi, 33-year old, echoed Aisha's sentiment. She said she is going to vote for a woman because she strongly believes that Kuwait desperately needs to have women in its Parliament. This conviction stems from her seeing how dialogue has deteriorated immensely in the National Assembly throughout the previous decade. She mused, "Generally speaking, men don't act all crazy in the presence of women, or when dealing with women. So I believe we will be able to listen to more articulate dialogue rathe
r than screaming and fighting in parliamentary sessions when women make it (in).
Sarah Al-Qallaf believes that more than one woman will make it in this year's elections. She said if she could, she would have an all-women parliament. "Men have proved to us over the years that they are hard- headed and not accepting of other views. This is not something that I have made up; watch their debates in parliament and see with your own eyes," she said.
Sarah, 31, says that the demands of her generation are generally career- related. She said that throughout her eight years of work, she saw male colleagues who have come after her get promotions and increments, while she makes less than them and works harder. "When people see that women are capable of making decisions and representing others in the parliament, I hope that their view of us will change and they will treat us as equals at work," she said. She says that she has seen women be more active and in
volved this year than the previous years.
Even her mother, a woman in her seventies, has been attending different candidates' seminars and debating about the country's politics. Salma Al-Enezi, 56-year- old retired teacher says that she is certain of women's presence in the next parliament, but she is worried that many of the female candidates, especially the ones she called 'educated' would waste time competing with men. She said that she wishes those female candidates will prove to be deserving of the voters' trust. Female future MPs should not
waste their time competing with men, but rather focus on what Kuwaiti women want and need. She said, "Some educated candidates I met in person speak my language, but there are other ones who only blabber with big terms and jargon about economy and financial stimulus plans.
Iran: Iran could elect first female president
presstv.ir
More than 40 women have registered as prospective candidates for Iran's tenth Presidential elections, a top election official says.
"Of the 475 who signed up as candidates, 433 are men and 42 are women," Kamran Daneshjoo, the head of Iran's election committee told reporters on Sunday.
That means the Islamic Republic could see a woman as its head of state, becoming the first Muslim country to have a female president.
However, the four candidates with the highest chance to win the race to the Presidential palace are incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's last prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, two times parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and the Secretary of Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei.
Hours after registration closed in the country's capital of Tehran, Daneshjoo said the oldest Iranian to seek the presidency was an 86 year-old, while the youngest was a 19-year-old teenager.
"From among the candidates one had obtained a high ranking clerical degree, one was a professor, 35 people had a PhD. and 216 were post graduates," he added.
A former member of Iran's 290-seat parliament, Rafat Bayat is considered the most prominent female figure to register for the elections, scheduled for June 12.
The Sociologist, whose last bid for presidency was rejected four years ago, has announced that if elected, her first deputy will be a woman.
After registering at the Interior Ministry on Saturday, Bayat criticized the Ahmadinejad administration for missing so many 'golden opportunities', a reference to the government's failure to take advantage of skyrocketing oil prices last year.
Under the Islamic Republic constitution, candidates for the presidency be among "rejal", a word meaning 'men' in Arabic but translates into renowned political figures in Persian.
The word has caused controversy in the past, with some interpretations claiming that the constitution bars women from running for president.
However, Iran's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, declared in April that there is no restriction on women standing in this year's presidential elections.
"The council has never put an interpretation on the word 'rejal'," Abbas-Ali Kadkodaye, a spokesman for the Guardians Council said.
MT/MMN
More than 40 women have registered as prospective candidates for Iran's tenth Presidential elections, a top election official says.
"Of the 475 who signed up as candidates, 433 are men and 42 are women," Kamran Daneshjoo, the head of Iran's election committee told reporters on Sunday.
That means the Islamic Republic could see a woman as its head of state, becoming the first Muslim country to have a female president.
However, the four candidates with the highest chance to win the race to the Presidential palace are incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's last prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, two times parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and the Secretary of Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei.
Hours after registration closed in the country's capital of Tehran, Daneshjoo said the oldest Iranian to seek the presidency was an 86 year-old, while the youngest was a 19-year-old teenager.
"From among the candidates one had obtained a high ranking clerical degree, one was a professor, 35 people had a PhD. and 216 were post graduates," he added.
A former member of Iran's 290-seat parliament, Rafat Bayat is considered the most prominent female figure to register for the elections, scheduled for June 12.
The Sociologist, whose last bid for presidency was rejected four years ago, has announced that if elected, her first deputy will be a woman.
After registering at the Interior Ministry on Saturday, Bayat criticized the Ahmadinejad administration for missing so many 'golden opportunities', a reference to the government's failure to take advantage of skyrocketing oil prices last year.
Under the Islamic Republic constitution, candidates for the presidency be among "rejal", a word meaning 'men' in Arabic but translates into renowned political figures in Persian.
The word has caused controversy in the past, with some interpretations claiming that the constitution bars women from running for president.
However, Iran's constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council, declared in April that there is no restriction on women standing in this year's presidential elections.
"The council has never put an interpretation on the word 'rejal'," Abbas-Ali Kadkodaye, a spokesman for the Guardians Council said.
MT/MMN
Iran: Many Try to Run for President in Iran, but Few Will Be Allowed
By NAZILA FATHI
Published: May 10, 2009
TEHRAN — With Iran’s presidential elections a month away, the Interior Ministry said Sunday that a total of 475 people had registered as candidates, including 40 women, and that the registrants ranged in age from 19 to 86. But an oversight panel of conservative mullahs and jurists is almost certain to disqualify most of them, leaving only a handful.
The total number of candidates, announced at the end of a five-day registration period, was less than half the 1,014 who had registered for the last presidential elections, in June 2005. Of that total, the oversight panel, known as the Guardian Council, disqualified all but six.
The Guardian Council, which screens all candidates for their religious and political qualifications and is known for its conservative Islamist views, is expected to announce the winnowed list of candidates for the June 12 elections on May 22.
There is a widespread expectation that the council will disqualify most or all challengers who favor more political and social openness. But the council’s choices will still be scrutinized because the incumbent candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a religious conservative widely blamed for Iran’s increased economic isolation, has lost many influential allies.
The most likely challengers are the three who had already declared their intention to face Mr. Ahmadinejad before the registration period. They are Mir Hussein Moussavi, a moderate politician and former prime minister; Mehdi Karroubi, another moderate politician and former speaker of Parliament; and Mohsen Rezai, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards.
The focus of the campaign so far has been Iran’s economy, but the target of the challengers is Mr. Ahmadinejad, whom they have sharply criticized.
The most unusual criticism came last week from Mr. Rezai, who, like Mr. Ahmadinejad, had opposed more political and social openness in the past. He said in a news conference that if Mr. Ahmadinejad was re-elected, “he would drag the country over a cliff.” He called the president’s foreign policy “provocative” and “adventurous” and blamed him later in the week for $1 billion in missing oil revenue.
Mr. Karroubi has criticized Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments on the issue of the Holocaust. Mr. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the Holocaust, but because of the country’s animosity toward Israel, the subject was dealt with quietly until Mr. Karroubi brought it out in the open. He said that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s statements had harmed the country and undermined the country’s position on the global stage.
Mr. Moussavi, who could be Mr. Ahmadinejad’s most serious rival, has lashed out at the Guidance Patrol, the police force that was set up under Mr. Ahmadinejad, and was responsible for harassing women deemed to be violating Islamic dress codes.
Politicians and activists are also taking advantage of a more tolerant atmosphere before the elections. Women’s groups have formed a coalition and announced at a news conference last month that they wanted discriminatory laws against women to be amended — a demand that has been confronted harshly by the authorities. Many female activists have been jailed in the past year.
Mr. Ahmadinejad once had the backing of influential clerics, but they have refrained from supporting him publicly in his re-election campaign, casting some doubt on his prospects for a second term.
The supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once his most prominent supporter, scolded him in a public letter last week after Mr. Ahmadinejad announced he was making a close ally the head of the state bureau for pilgrimages to Mecca.
Mr. Ahmadinejad may still be re-elected. He has traveled everywhere around the country as president, giving money and promising to help. Many voters point to his generosity and willingness to ease government bureaucracy.
“I will vote for him because he wrote a letter and exempted us from paying a fine for illegal construction when he was mayor,” said Nader Abolqasemi, a 33-year old civil servant, referring to the time when Mr. Ahmadinejad was the mayor of Tehran before he was elected president.
His supporters portray him as a Spartan and pious man who wants to serve his country. In a book about his life titled “The Son of People,” he still cultivates the small garden at his home and his newly married daughter lives in a small rental apartment.
The candidate registration announcement coincided with news that an imprisoned Iranian-American journalist in Iran, Roxana Saberi, had appealed her conviction for espionage. News services reported that her lawyer was optimistic that the eight-year sentence would be reduced.
The lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, talked to reporters after his client’s five-hour, closed-door appeals hearing. He said that he had been allowed to defend Ms. Saberi and that he expected the court to rule in the coming days.
The case has caused tensions between the United States and Iran at a time when President Obama has said he wants to engage the Iranian government after a 30-year estrangement. Washington has called the spying conviction baseless.
Iran had promised a review of the case on appeal and insisted that Ms. Saberi would be allowed to provide a full defense. Officials have suggested that her prison term could be reduced or the conviction overturned. Ms. Saberi, who grew up in Fargo, N.D., was convicted last month after a closed-door hearing.
Published: May 10, 2009
TEHRAN — With Iran’s presidential elections a month away, the Interior Ministry said Sunday that a total of 475 people had registered as candidates, including 40 women, and that the registrants ranged in age from 19 to 86. But an oversight panel of conservative mullahs and jurists is almost certain to disqualify most of them, leaving only a handful.
The total number of candidates, announced at the end of a five-day registration period, was less than half the 1,014 who had registered for the last presidential elections, in June 2005. Of that total, the oversight panel, known as the Guardian Council, disqualified all but six.
The Guardian Council, which screens all candidates for their religious and political qualifications and is known for its conservative Islamist views, is expected to announce the winnowed list of candidates for the June 12 elections on May 22.
There is a widespread expectation that the council will disqualify most or all challengers who favor more political and social openness. But the council’s choices will still be scrutinized because the incumbent candidate, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a religious conservative widely blamed for Iran’s increased economic isolation, has lost many influential allies.
The most likely challengers are the three who had already declared their intention to face Mr. Ahmadinejad before the registration period. They are Mir Hussein Moussavi, a moderate politician and former prime minister; Mehdi Karroubi, another moderate politician and former speaker of Parliament; and Mohsen Rezai, a former head of the Revolutionary Guards.
The focus of the campaign so far has been Iran’s economy, but the target of the challengers is Mr. Ahmadinejad, whom they have sharply criticized.
The most unusual criticism came last week from Mr. Rezai, who, like Mr. Ahmadinejad, had opposed more political and social openness in the past. He said in a news conference that if Mr. Ahmadinejad was re-elected, “he would drag the country over a cliff.” He called the president’s foreign policy “provocative” and “adventurous” and blamed him later in the week for $1 billion in missing oil revenue.
Mr. Karroubi has criticized Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments on the issue of the Holocaust. Mr. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the Holocaust, but because of the country’s animosity toward Israel, the subject was dealt with quietly until Mr. Karroubi brought it out in the open. He said that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s statements had harmed the country and undermined the country’s position on the global stage.
Mr. Moussavi, who could be Mr. Ahmadinejad’s most serious rival, has lashed out at the Guidance Patrol, the police force that was set up under Mr. Ahmadinejad, and was responsible for harassing women deemed to be violating Islamic dress codes.
Politicians and activists are also taking advantage of a more tolerant atmosphere before the elections. Women’s groups have formed a coalition and announced at a news conference last month that they wanted discriminatory laws against women to be amended — a demand that has been confronted harshly by the authorities. Many female activists have been jailed in the past year.
Mr. Ahmadinejad once had the backing of influential clerics, but they have refrained from supporting him publicly in his re-election campaign, casting some doubt on his prospects for a second term.
The supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once his most prominent supporter, scolded him in a public letter last week after Mr. Ahmadinejad announced he was making a close ally the head of the state bureau for pilgrimages to Mecca.
Mr. Ahmadinejad may still be re-elected. He has traveled everywhere around the country as president, giving money and promising to help. Many voters point to his generosity and willingness to ease government bureaucracy.
“I will vote for him because he wrote a letter and exempted us from paying a fine for illegal construction when he was mayor,” said Nader Abolqasemi, a 33-year old civil servant, referring to the time when Mr. Ahmadinejad was the mayor of Tehran before he was elected president.
His supporters portray him as a Spartan and pious man who wants to serve his country. In a book about his life titled “The Son of People,” he still cultivates the small garden at his home and his newly married daughter lives in a small rental apartment.
The candidate registration announcement coincided with news that an imprisoned Iranian-American journalist in Iran, Roxana Saberi, had appealed her conviction for espionage. News services reported that her lawyer was optimistic that the eight-year sentence would be reduced.
The lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, talked to reporters after his client’s five-hour, closed-door appeals hearing. He said that he had been allowed to defend Ms. Saberi and that he expected the court to rule in the coming days.
The case has caused tensions between the United States and Iran at a time when President Obama has said he wants to engage the Iranian government after a 30-year estrangement. Washington has called the spying conviction baseless.
Iran had promised a review of the case on appeal and insisted that Ms. Saberi would be allowed to provide a full defense. Officials have suggested that her prison term could be reduced or the conviction overturned. Ms. Saberi, who grew up in Fargo, N.D., was convicted last month after a closed-door hearing.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Kuwait: Controversy over voting for women gets heated
The National
James Calderwood, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: May 07. 2009 10:59PM UAE / May 7. 2009 6:59PM GMT KUWAIT CITY // Waleed al Tabtabai, who served in Kuwait’s last parliament, stoked controversy this week when he agreed with a member of the Salafi Movement in saying it would be a sin to vote for women in the elections on May 16.
Mr al Tabtabai, who said he is an independent Salafi, was speaking on the sidelines of an election rally on Tuesday.
Fuhaid al Hailam of the Salafi Movement (SM) had started the row on Monday when he said it would be a sin to vote for one of the country’s 19 female candidates, Al Arabiya reported. Salafism is an austere branch of Islam that rejects innovation and believes in a strict, literal reading of the Quran.
“In Islam, the heads of the state should only be men, and we think the parliament is part of the head of the state,” Mr al Tabtabai said. “Other things are OK for women but not to be a part of the parliament.
“It’s an old fatwa,” he said referring to Mr al Hailam’s remarks. “Some of the public are not aware of it, but it was issued 20 or 30 years ago by the ministry of awqaf [Islamic Affairs].
Mr al Tabtabai is likely to regain his seat – polls suggest he will finish in the top 10 in his constituency, earning him a place in the 50-member parliament.
The women who are trying to reach parliament for the first time lambasted the statements.
Naeema al Hai, a Third Constituency candidate, said yesterday: “Those guys say it’s OK for them to take the vote of a woman, but not OK for women to vote for each other. That’s very wrong. That’s not the freedom and democracy that the Quran gave us.”
Ms al Hai said some men are frightened of the idea of sharing power with a woman in parliament.
Kuwait’s mainstream Salafi party, the Islamic Salafi Alliance (ISA), was the largest political group in the last parliament with four seats. Kuwait’s MPs are mostly independent or belong to small political groups. This year they are fielding five candidates. The SM has no presence in the forthcoming election.
The emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, dissolved the last assembly and called for new elections in May when some MPs tried to question the prime minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Ahmad Al Sabah, who is a royal.
Mr al Tabtabai was involved in the previous political crisis in November as it was his request to question the prime minister that led to the resignation of the cabinet.
Two of the ISA’s candidates, Khalid Sultan bin Essa and Abdullatif al Ameeri, did address an exclusively female audience at a rally on Tuesday. The women passed questions to the former MPs on cards, but did not ask about the fatwa.
Instead, they focused Mr bin Essa’s involvement with supermarkets that sold pork and alcohol overseas. Mr bin Essa said he did not establish the companies, he bought into them, and they have now withdrawn the products.
Mr al Ameeri distanced his party from Mr al Hailam of the SM but did not take sides on the fatwa. “The Salafi Movement is different from us,” Mr al Ameeri said.
“For example, the alliance considers bin Laden as a criminal. They consider him a hero.
“We don’t know what the origin of the fatwa is,” he said. “This is not right. We have to find the correct origin in the Quran and Sunnah.”
Mr bin Essa clarified his party’s position in an interview yesterday. He said voting for women was not a sin. “We separated ourselves from the fatwa. We issued a statement that undermines theirs.”
But some of the women at the rally agreed with the fatwa. Waheeda Abdulwahab, a sister of Mr al Ameeri, said she supportsedit because nobody in her religion would issue a fatwa that was untrue, as doing so would be a serious sin.
Another woman at the event, Sheikha al Fahad, who is involved in running the ISA’s campaign, said: “I don’t agree with the fatwa 100 per cent, maybe 30 per cent. I know what they mean when they say it’s a sin. It’s too soon for Kuwaiti women to enter the parliament – maybe in a few years.”
At another campaign rally this week, a former MP and candidate for the ISA, Ali al Omair, said his religion did not permit women to serve in the assembly but “if a lady is either elected or nominated by the government, we have to deal with her.
“We can’t isolate ourselves because there is a woman in the parliament”.
This will be the third attempt by women to reach the National Assembly since they received full political rights in 2005. The polls predict three women will win seats in the next parliament.
James Calderwood, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: May 07. 2009 10:59PM UAE / May 7. 2009 6:59PM GMT KUWAIT CITY // Waleed al Tabtabai, who served in Kuwait’s last parliament, stoked controversy this week when he agreed with a member of the Salafi Movement in saying it would be a sin to vote for women in the elections on May 16.
Mr al Tabtabai, who said he is an independent Salafi, was speaking on the sidelines of an election rally on Tuesday.
Fuhaid al Hailam of the Salafi Movement (SM) had started the row on Monday when he said it would be a sin to vote for one of the country’s 19 female candidates, Al Arabiya reported. Salafism is an austere branch of Islam that rejects innovation and believes in a strict, literal reading of the Quran.
“In Islam, the heads of the state should only be men, and we think the parliament is part of the head of the state,” Mr al Tabtabai said. “Other things are OK for women but not to be a part of the parliament.
“It’s an old fatwa,” he said referring to Mr al Hailam’s remarks. “Some of the public are not aware of it, but it was issued 20 or 30 years ago by the ministry of awqaf [Islamic Affairs].
Mr al Tabtabai is likely to regain his seat – polls suggest he will finish in the top 10 in his constituency, earning him a place in the 50-member parliament.
The women who are trying to reach parliament for the first time lambasted the statements.
Naeema al Hai, a Third Constituency candidate, said yesterday: “Those guys say it’s OK for them to take the vote of a woman, but not OK for women to vote for each other. That’s very wrong. That’s not the freedom and democracy that the Quran gave us.”
Ms al Hai said some men are frightened of the idea of sharing power with a woman in parliament.
Kuwait’s mainstream Salafi party, the Islamic Salafi Alliance (ISA), was the largest political group in the last parliament with four seats. Kuwait’s MPs are mostly independent or belong to small political groups. This year they are fielding five candidates. The SM has no presence in the forthcoming election.
The emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, dissolved the last assembly and called for new elections in May when some MPs tried to question the prime minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Ahmad Al Sabah, who is a royal.
Mr al Tabtabai was involved in the previous political crisis in November as it was his request to question the prime minister that led to the resignation of the cabinet.
Two of the ISA’s candidates, Khalid Sultan bin Essa and Abdullatif al Ameeri, did address an exclusively female audience at a rally on Tuesday. The women passed questions to the former MPs on cards, but did not ask about the fatwa.
Instead, they focused Mr bin Essa’s involvement with supermarkets that sold pork and alcohol overseas. Mr bin Essa said he did not establish the companies, he bought into them, and they have now withdrawn the products.
Mr al Ameeri distanced his party from Mr al Hailam of the SM but did not take sides on the fatwa. “The Salafi Movement is different from us,” Mr al Ameeri said.
“For example, the alliance considers bin Laden as a criminal. They consider him a hero.
“We don’t know what the origin of the fatwa is,” he said. “This is not right. We have to find the correct origin in the Quran and Sunnah.”
Mr bin Essa clarified his party’s position in an interview yesterday. He said voting for women was not a sin. “We separated ourselves from the fatwa. We issued a statement that undermines theirs.”
But some of the women at the rally agreed with the fatwa. Waheeda Abdulwahab, a sister of Mr al Ameeri, said she supportsedit because nobody in her religion would issue a fatwa that was untrue, as doing so would be a serious sin.
Another woman at the event, Sheikha al Fahad, who is involved in running the ISA’s campaign, said: “I don’t agree with the fatwa 100 per cent, maybe 30 per cent. I know what they mean when they say it’s a sin. It’s too soon for Kuwaiti women to enter the parliament – maybe in a few years.”
At another campaign rally this week, a former MP and candidate for the ISA, Ali al Omair, said his religion did not permit women to serve in the assembly but “if a lady is either elected or nominated by the government, we have to deal with her.
“We can’t isolate ourselves because there is a woman in the parliament”.
This will be the third attempt by women to reach the National Assembly since they received full political rights in 2005. The polls predict three women will win seats in the next parliament.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Kuwait: Kuwaiti women aim for third time lucky in Assembly polls
Arab Times
KUWAIT CITY, May 6, (AFP): Women in Kuwait aim to make it third time lucky as they contest seats in parliament after two failed attempts in legislative elections. US-educated candidate Maasouma Al-Mubarak already made history by becoming the first female minister in Kuwait in 2005, right after women were granted full political rights following a 40-year struggle. “I am very optimistic that a Kuwaiti woman will reach parliament this time. I was the first female minister and I am looking to become the first female member of parliament,” she said after registering her candidacy. Early polls have been called for May 16, after parliament was dissolved for the third time in as many years. “This time we are contesting for a third time more determined, more optimistic and more aware ... I believe the path is ready,” for women to enter parliament, Mubarak added. “Third time lucky,” the US-educated candidate told AFP.
Women voters make up 54 percent of the 385,000 eligible voters in Kuwait, but they overwhelmingly voted for male candidates in the previous elections since 2005.
Activist Badriya Al-Awadhi found in a study published this week that only three percent of women voters cast their votes for women candidates in the 2008 polls.
In the 2006 and 2008 elections, a total of 54 women candidates stood in the polls but without success although a number of them made a strong showing.
A liberal candidate, Aseel Al-Awadhi, who is running again in this month’s election, came in 11th place last year, just behind the first 10 in her constituency who won seats. Nineteen women are standing in this year’s election, of whom all but two have contested previous elections.
Analysts attribute women’s failure in the previous two elections to several reasons, such as the conservative nature of Kuwait society, absence of support from political groups, and lack of experience.
The head of the Women’s Development Institute, Kawthar Al-Juaan, believes the chances of women on May 16 have improved after they gained experience in the previous two polls.
Chances
“I believe the chances of Kuwaiti women candidates this time are very strong ... Kuwaiti voters are more favourable to women than before,” Juaan told AFP.
She said the constant political crises in the the country and infighting within men-controlled political groups would make it easier for women to win seats.
The date of the elections falls on the fourth anniversary of a parliamentary vote on May 16, 2005 that gave women full political rights.
Candidate Thekra Al-Rasheedi, who last year suprisingly secured 2,200 votes in a tribal constituency where voters do not favour women, said this year the outlook is much better.
“Last year, I struggled to visit diwaniyas (traditionally all-male gathering places) simply because I am a woman. This year, I have been invited by so many diwaniyas that I don’t have the time to visit them all,” lawyer Rasheedi said.
A local hardline Islamic group, however, has issued a fatwa, or a religious edict, saying that voting for women candidates was prohibited under Islam.
The Salafi Movement argued that by becoming members of parliament, women would occupy a public office, something “which, under Islamic rules, is prohibited for women.”
Several female candidates, many of whom are highly educated and work in top professions, slammed the fatwa as “politically-motivated.”
Kuwaiti women account for 44.5 percent of the national workforce of about 336,000 — the highest proportion in any Arab state in the Gulf region — but only a few hold top posts in government.
The 16-member cabinet has two women ministers.
KUWAIT CITY, May 6, (AFP): Women in Kuwait aim to make it third time lucky as they contest seats in parliament after two failed attempts in legislative elections. US-educated candidate Maasouma Al-Mubarak already made history by becoming the first female minister in Kuwait in 2005, right after women were granted full political rights following a 40-year struggle. “I am very optimistic that a Kuwaiti woman will reach parliament this time. I was the first female minister and I am looking to become the first female member of parliament,” she said after registering her candidacy. Early polls have been called for May 16, after parliament was dissolved for the third time in as many years. “This time we are contesting for a third time more determined, more optimistic and more aware ... I believe the path is ready,” for women to enter parliament, Mubarak added. “Third time lucky,” the US-educated candidate told AFP.
Women voters make up 54 percent of the 385,000 eligible voters in Kuwait, but they overwhelmingly voted for male candidates in the previous elections since 2005.
Activist Badriya Al-Awadhi found in a study published this week that only three percent of women voters cast their votes for women candidates in the 2008 polls.
In the 2006 and 2008 elections, a total of 54 women candidates stood in the polls but without success although a number of them made a strong showing.
A liberal candidate, Aseel Al-Awadhi, who is running again in this month’s election, came in 11th place last year, just behind the first 10 in her constituency who won seats. Nineteen women are standing in this year’s election, of whom all but two have contested previous elections.
Analysts attribute women’s failure in the previous two elections to several reasons, such as the conservative nature of Kuwait society, absence of support from political groups, and lack of experience.
The head of the Women’s Development Institute, Kawthar Al-Juaan, believes the chances of women on May 16 have improved after they gained experience in the previous two polls.
Chances
“I believe the chances of Kuwaiti women candidates this time are very strong ... Kuwaiti voters are more favourable to women than before,” Juaan told AFP.
She said the constant political crises in the the country and infighting within men-controlled political groups would make it easier for women to win seats.
The date of the elections falls on the fourth anniversary of a parliamentary vote on May 16, 2005 that gave women full political rights.
Candidate Thekra Al-Rasheedi, who last year suprisingly secured 2,200 votes in a tribal constituency where voters do not favour women, said this year the outlook is much better.
“Last year, I struggled to visit diwaniyas (traditionally all-male gathering places) simply because I am a woman. This year, I have been invited by so many diwaniyas that I don’t have the time to visit them all,” lawyer Rasheedi said.
A local hardline Islamic group, however, has issued a fatwa, or a religious edict, saying that voting for women candidates was prohibited under Islam.
The Salafi Movement argued that by becoming members of parliament, women would occupy a public office, something “which, under Islamic rules, is prohibited for women.”
Several female candidates, many of whom are highly educated and work in top professions, slammed the fatwa as “politically-motivated.”
Kuwaiti women account for 44.5 percent of the national workforce of about 336,000 — the highest proportion in any Arab state in the Gulf region — but only a few hold top posts in government.
The 16-member cabinet has two women ministers.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Kuwait: Barrak blasts govt, stimulus
Kuwait Times
Published Date: May 06, 2009
By B Izzak, Staff Writer
KUWIAT: Former opposition lawmaker Musallam Al-Barrak launched a scathing attack on the government and its supporters and strongly criticized the economic stimulus decree, which he said was issued to aid highly influential rich people. Barrak claimed that the bill will provide hundreds of millions of dinars in public funds to private companies, adding that the bill was tailored to serve the interests of a number of companies battered by the global financial crisis.
Meanwhile, leading female candidate Aseel Al-Awadhi yesterday filed a lawsuit with the public prosecutor over a YouTube video showing her telling her university students that Islam does not require women to wear the hijab. The lawsuit named no one but described the clip as an attempt to distort her ideas. Awadhi had earlier explained in a statement that the Youtube clip was illegally filmed while she was giving university students a class and was actively involved in a debate with them over certain issues.
She said the film was completely taken out of context and showed as if she had said that hijab was not required for Muslim women, "which is completely untrue as I was only initiating a debate among the students and not expressing my personal views". Awadhi, holder of a doctorate degree in political philosophy from Texas University in Austin, said that she was only raising controversial questions to her students in a bid to urge them to debate a particular issue.
The posting of the film on YouTube appears to be intended to harm Awadhi's chances of winning the first seat for Kuwaiti women in the Assembly. In her first bid last year, Awadhi came in 11th position, just behind the first 10 winners in the third electoral district.
In another development, Kuwait University administration yesterday scrapped its decision to ban political symposia at the university campus. The decision came after a meeting with the Kuwait Students Union and following strong criticism by political groups and candidates. Meanwhile, the number of candidates still in the fray for the May 16 general elections dropped to 248 including 19 women after a total of 40 candidates have so far pulled out. Withdrawals remain open until Friday and more candidates are e
xpected to drop out.
Barrak, spokesman of the Popular Action Bloc, blamed the government of obstructing development in the country along with a number of former MPs who have been beating the drums for the government. He revealed that he has a "black file" that he will reveal to the Kuwaiti people, regardless of the consequences.
Barrak defended himself against accusations that he always shouts in the Assembly. "I shout because of the pain and if they call me the shouting member, they are the rubber-stamp MPs," he said. He accused the government of lying to the people and forging facts while using "corrupt media and drum-beating MPs to cover up for the whales who have exploited the property of the Kuwaiti people".
Barrak alleged that some influential people have managed to "convince some members of the ruling family that the constitution is a stumbling block before their ambitions." "These influential people are assuring members of the ruling family that they are capable of confronting the people through a security clampdown if the National Assembly is suspended," he said.
He revealed that the Green Island, which is worth KD 2 billion, was about to be given to two investors for an annual rent of just KD 300,000. The Popular Bloc foiled the project, he said. Barrak also criticized the Central Bank for its role on the economic stimulus package and refusal to write off people debts. He ridiculed those who claim that the Kuwaiti economy would collapse if the stimulus law was rejected by the new Assembly, saying that the debt of only seven companies is KD 3.2 billion.
Speaking at the rally, former MP Marzouk Al-Hubaini warned against wide-ranging vote-buying practices which he described as the most serious threat in the elections. Hubaini said that the assault on him and other opposition MPs by calling them "members who instigate crises" is because "we have stopped three main suspicious projects saving more than $25 billion of public funds." He was referring to the K-Dow joint venture, the fourth refinery and electricity contracts.
Published Date: May 06, 2009
By B Izzak, Staff Writer
KUWIAT: Former opposition lawmaker Musallam Al-Barrak launched a scathing attack on the government and its supporters and strongly criticized the economic stimulus decree, which he said was issued to aid highly influential rich people. Barrak claimed that the bill will provide hundreds of millions of dinars in public funds to private companies, adding that the bill was tailored to serve the interests of a number of companies battered by the global financial crisis.
Meanwhile, leading female candidate Aseel Al-Awadhi yesterday filed a lawsuit with the public prosecutor over a YouTube video showing her telling her university students that Islam does not require women to wear the hijab. The lawsuit named no one but described the clip as an attempt to distort her ideas. Awadhi had earlier explained in a statement that the Youtube clip was illegally filmed while she was giving university students a class and was actively involved in a debate with them over certain issues.
She said the film was completely taken out of context and showed as if she had said that hijab was not required for Muslim women, "which is completely untrue as I was only initiating a debate among the students and not expressing my personal views". Awadhi, holder of a doctorate degree in political philosophy from Texas University in Austin, said that she was only raising controversial questions to her students in a bid to urge them to debate a particular issue.
The posting of the film on YouTube appears to be intended to harm Awadhi's chances of winning the first seat for Kuwaiti women in the Assembly. In her first bid last year, Awadhi came in 11th position, just behind the first 10 winners in the third electoral district.
In another development, Kuwait University administration yesterday scrapped its decision to ban political symposia at the university campus. The decision came after a meeting with the Kuwait Students Union and following strong criticism by political groups and candidates. Meanwhile, the number of candidates still in the fray for the May 16 general elections dropped to 248 including 19 women after a total of 40 candidates have so far pulled out. Withdrawals remain open until Friday and more candidates are e
xpected to drop out.
Barrak, spokesman of the Popular Action Bloc, blamed the government of obstructing development in the country along with a number of former MPs who have been beating the drums for the government. He revealed that he has a "black file" that he will reveal to the Kuwaiti people, regardless of the consequences.
Barrak defended himself against accusations that he always shouts in the Assembly. "I shout because of the pain and if they call me the shouting member, they are the rubber-stamp MPs," he said. He accused the government of lying to the people and forging facts while using "corrupt media and drum-beating MPs to cover up for the whales who have exploited the property of the Kuwaiti people".
Barrak alleged that some influential people have managed to "convince some members of the ruling family that the constitution is a stumbling block before their ambitions." "These influential people are assuring members of the ruling family that they are capable of confronting the people through a security clampdown if the National Assembly is suspended," he said.
He revealed that the Green Island, which is worth KD 2 billion, was about to be given to two investors for an annual rent of just KD 300,000. The Popular Bloc foiled the project, he said. Barrak also criticized the Central Bank for its role on the economic stimulus package and refusal to write off people debts. He ridiculed those who claim that the Kuwaiti economy would collapse if the stimulus law was rejected by the new Assembly, saying that the debt of only seven companies is KD 3.2 billion.
Speaking at the rally, former MP Marzouk Al-Hubaini warned against wide-ranging vote-buying practices which he described as the most serious threat in the elections. Hubaini said that the assault on him and other opposition MPs by calling them "members who instigate crises" is because "we have stopped three main suspicious projects saving more than $25 billion of public funds." He was referring to the K-Dow joint venture, the fourth refinery and electricity contracts.
Iran: Rezaei taps Imam's granddaughter as advisor
Presstv.ir
Iranian presidential hopeful Mohsen Rezaei has selected one of the granddaughters of the late Imam Khomeini as his campaign advisor on women's issues.
Leili Boroujerdi, a child of the Imam's eldest daughter Zahra Mostafavi, was appointed on Tuesday as Rezaei's advisor on women's issues, a statement issued by the hopeful's camp revealed Tuesday.
"With regards to your outstanding experience, I wish to use your guidance on issues pertinent to women," reads the statement.
Law graduate Leili Boroujerdi is currently the head of the Expediency Council's special committee on youth and women.
Rezaei, a Principlist critic of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies, has previously indicated that if elected, he would appoint a female to fill in the critical post of foreign minister.
“I will appoint a woman as my foreign minister to challenge [US Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton,” he told reporters on Monday.
After months of leaving his bid for presidency in a haze of ambiguity, Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaie on Wednesday announced his bid for the presidency.
Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also feeling the heat, as his main rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and the country's ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi have declared they are willing to face Ahmadinejad head-on.
Iran's presidential elections are scheduled to take place on June 12. It will be the tenth presidential vote to take place since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 ended the reign of the pro-US monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
MT/AA
Iranian presidential hopeful Mohsen Rezaei has selected one of the granddaughters of the late Imam Khomeini as his campaign advisor on women's issues.
Leili Boroujerdi, a child of the Imam's eldest daughter Zahra Mostafavi, was appointed on Tuesday as Rezaei's advisor on women's issues, a statement issued by the hopeful's camp revealed Tuesday.
"With regards to your outstanding experience, I wish to use your guidance on issues pertinent to women," reads the statement.
Law graduate Leili Boroujerdi is currently the head of the Expediency Council's special committee on youth and women.
Rezaei, a Principlist critic of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies, has previously indicated that if elected, he would appoint a female to fill in the critical post of foreign minister.
“I will appoint a woman as my foreign minister to challenge [US Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton,” he told reporters on Monday.
After months of leaving his bid for presidency in a haze of ambiguity, Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaie on Wednesday announced his bid for the presidency.
Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also feeling the heat, as his main rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and the country's ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi have declared they are willing to face Ahmadinejad head-on.
Iran's presidential elections are scheduled to take place on June 12. It will be the tenth presidential vote to take place since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 ended the reign of the pro-US monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
MT/AA
Iran: Ebtekar withdraws candidacy in favor of Mousavi
Mehr News
TEHRAN, May. 6 (MNA) – Former Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar has released a statement announcing her withdrawal from the presidential candidacy in favor of Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Ebtekar said she was “qualified” for the presidential post and that she was sure that her qualification would have been “approved” by the Guardian Council. She added that she believed that the contest of the election by women was “another political and social achievement for the nation”.
However the former director of the Environment Department at the Khatami administration said she made such a decision because unanimity in the reformist camp is of utmost importance.
Ebtekar also praised Mahdi Karroubi’s “brave” stances in the election campaigns but insisted that Mousavi is the “most qualified” candidate.
HK/PA
END
MNA
TEHRAN, May. 6 (MNA) – Former Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar has released a statement announcing her withdrawal from the presidential candidacy in favor of Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Ebtekar said she was “qualified” for the presidential post and that she was sure that her qualification would have been “approved” by the Guardian Council. She added that she believed that the contest of the election by women was “another political and social achievement for the nation”.
However the former director of the Environment Department at the Khatami administration said she made such a decision because unanimity in the reformist camp is of utmost importance.
Ebtekar also praised Mahdi Karroubi’s “brave” stances in the election campaigns but insisted that Mousavi is the “most qualified” candidate.
HK/PA
END
MNA
Iran: Four women among dozens eye Iran presidency
Middle East Online
Fifty people sign up to stand in Iranian presidential election, awaiting final approval.
TEHRAN - Dozens of hopefuls, including four women and a truck driver, signed up on Tuesday to run in June 12 presidential election, seen as a test for Iran's dominant conservatives.
Fifty people signed up to stand in the election on the first day of a five-day candidate registration period, Kamran Daneshjoo, the election committee head, told reporters.
A mix of citizens with no political background registered on Tuesday, including the truck driver, while others used the opportunity to make a political statement.
"Those who registered were managing directors, experts, retired government employees, teachers, professionals such as from the field of dentistry, and a truck driver," Daneshjoo said.
Most of them were from the cities of Tehran, Mashhad and Tabriz.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who took power in August 2005, has yet to declare his candidacy but is expected to register to seek another four-year term before the deadline expires on Saturday.
Former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai, the former head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corp, have already announced they plan to stand.
Ahmadinejad has faced mounting criticism from reformists and fellow conservatives mainly over his handling of the economy, accused of stoking inflation and "wasting" Iran's windfall oil revenues over the past two years.
Since his 2005 election, the president has gone on a spending spree, pledging generous sums for local projects and small business loans.
The official IRNA news agency said the first candidate to register was 45-year-old Mohsen Hadi Najafbadi from the province of Sistan Baluchestan which borders Pakistan.
The candidates have to be at least 18 years old but the upper age limit has not been specified. More than 46 million Iranians are eligible to take part in the election, with the voting age also fixed at 18.
In 2005, over 1,000 people registered as candidates but the Guardians Council -- Iran's hardline electoral and constitutional watchdog -- only allowed eight to stand.
The council said that there was no restriction on women standing.
Dressed in a tight velvet coat and bright headscarf, 37-year-old Halina Saki was among the women who registered on Tuesday.
"I want to prove women can come forward and speak out on social issues," Saki, who holds a PhD in psychology, said. "I don't think I'll pass the screening but whoever is elected should appoint women to the cabinet."
After the registration, the powerful 12-member Guardians Council will screen the candidates and give a final ruling on those who can actually stand for the election.
The council comprises six clerics selected by the supreme leader and six jurists proposed by the judiciary chief.
The names of successful candidates will be announced on May 20 and 21, with the election campaign running to June 10. The interior ministry has said results will be declared a day after the election.
Fifty people sign up to stand in Iranian presidential election, awaiting final approval.
TEHRAN - Dozens of hopefuls, including four women and a truck driver, signed up on Tuesday to run in June 12 presidential election, seen as a test for Iran's dominant conservatives.
Fifty people signed up to stand in the election on the first day of a five-day candidate registration period, Kamran Daneshjoo, the election committee head, told reporters.
A mix of citizens with no political background registered on Tuesday, including the truck driver, while others used the opportunity to make a political statement.
"Those who registered were managing directors, experts, retired government employees, teachers, professionals such as from the field of dentistry, and a truck driver," Daneshjoo said.
Most of them were from the cities of Tehran, Mashhad and Tabriz.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who took power in August 2005, has yet to declare his candidacy but is expected to register to seek another four-year term before the deadline expires on Saturday.
Former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai, the former head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corp, have already announced they plan to stand.
Ahmadinejad has faced mounting criticism from reformists and fellow conservatives mainly over his handling of the economy, accused of stoking inflation and "wasting" Iran's windfall oil revenues over the past two years.
Since his 2005 election, the president has gone on a spending spree, pledging generous sums for local projects and small business loans.
The official IRNA news agency said the first candidate to register was 45-year-old Mohsen Hadi Najafbadi from the province of Sistan Baluchestan which borders Pakistan.
The candidates have to be at least 18 years old but the upper age limit has not been specified. More than 46 million Iranians are eligible to take part in the election, with the voting age also fixed at 18.
In 2005, over 1,000 people registered as candidates but the Guardians Council -- Iran's hardline electoral and constitutional watchdog -- only allowed eight to stand.
The council said that there was no restriction on women standing.
Dressed in a tight velvet coat and bright headscarf, 37-year-old Halina Saki was among the women who registered on Tuesday.
"I want to prove women can come forward and speak out on social issues," Saki, who holds a PhD in psychology, said. "I don't think I'll pass the screening but whoever is elected should appoint women to the cabinet."
After the registration, the powerful 12-member Guardians Council will screen the candidates and give a final ruling on those who can actually stand for the election.
The council comprises six clerics selected by the supreme leader and six jurists proposed by the judiciary chief.
The names of successful candidates will be announced on May 20 and 21, with the election campaign running to June 10. The interior ministry has said results will be declared a day after the election.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Kuwait: Candidates react to Salafist 'fatwa'
Kuwait Times
KUWAIT: Reacting to the fatwa issued by Islamic Salafists Movement asking voters to abstain from voting for female candidates, Dr Fatima Al-Abdaly, a first constituency candidate described it is a 'dangerous indicator.' "This is a clear violation of the Constitution and electoral law," she asserted, adding that it reflects the fact that women now stand at the Parliament's threshold. This knowledge has prompted these individuals to take steps to discourage their foray into politics." She said that other Muslim countries do view women's electoral franchise as a problem, "The statement takes us back to the era before women gained their political rights." She questioned why the fatwa was not declared during the 2006 and 2008 elections.
She said that they (Salafists) are trying to target women during the elections, since many voters had planned to vote for women. But this(edict ) may hurt women's interests since voting for them is being condemned as a sin. Third constituency candidate Ayesha Al-Rushaid said that since the Salafists movement has exposed its real nature to the Kuwaiti people, they are now playing the religious card. Islam does not forbid political participation which is evidenced by the 'Baiah' system in Islam where men and women are considered equal.
Another third constituency candidate Naeema Al-Hai said that such fatwas now aim at preventing women from reaching the Parliament and reduce their chances. This indicates how weak those political factions are at the possibility of women wining seats in the Parliament. She said that women's participation in Parliament does not mean 'general jurisdiction,' rather it is participation decision-making and there are examples of women holding leadership positions in Muslim countries. Meanwhile a official said that the government will not comment on inflammatory statements. He said that the appearance of such issues now aim at gaining certain groups' votes. Kuwait's Constitution has guaranteed equality to both man and woman.
Dr Faris Al Wuqayan, a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies criticized the Salafists Movement's statement, adding that it does not relate to the 'civil state' and democracy at all, and questioned, "Is it okay to benefit from the woman's vote as a voter without granting her our vote as a candidate"? He said such statements take us back to the Middle Ages of Europe because it is not related to the modern era at all, in fact 'the brains that came up with it need treatment.' When asked about the possibility of the so-called edict gaining support among masses, Al-Wquayan said that the voting standards are not determined by religious practices. This is because clergy men's illegal practices and participation in the country's administration, economy, financial companies' administration are well known.
This gives out the idea that ideological religious affiliations are not related to ethical practices, even it stems from a liberal or tribal person. Columnist and political analyst Sami Al-Nisf found it strange for a few to convene and call themselves a movement and then start issuing statements. He said that the Salafists movement that is represented in Kuwait, is the revival of society and that they did not hear such statements from them. Al-Nisf said that Islam is not limited to Kuwait, but it is practiced in 56 countries around the world. He added that many gave women the right to run for office and vote and women are allowed to hold the office of prime minister there.
KUWAIT: Reacting to the fatwa issued by Islamic Salafists Movement asking voters to abstain from voting for female candidates, Dr Fatima Al-Abdaly, a first constituency candidate described it is a 'dangerous indicator.' "This is a clear violation of the Constitution and electoral law," she asserted, adding that it reflects the fact that women now stand at the Parliament's threshold. This knowledge has prompted these individuals to take steps to discourage their foray into politics." She said that other Muslim countries do view women's electoral franchise as a problem, "The statement takes us back to the era before women gained their political rights." She questioned why the fatwa was not declared during the 2006 and 2008 elections.
She said that they (Salafists) are trying to target women during the elections, since many voters had planned to vote for women. But this(edict ) may hurt women's interests since voting for them is being condemned as a sin. Third constituency candidate Ayesha Al-Rushaid said that since the Salafists movement has exposed its real nature to the Kuwaiti people, they are now playing the religious card. Islam does not forbid political participation which is evidenced by the 'Baiah' system in Islam where men and women are considered equal.
Another third constituency candidate Naeema Al-Hai said that such fatwas now aim at preventing women from reaching the Parliament and reduce their chances. This indicates how weak those political factions are at the possibility of women wining seats in the Parliament. She said that women's participation in Parliament does not mean 'general jurisdiction,' rather it is participation decision-making and there are examples of women holding leadership positions in Muslim countries. Meanwhile a official said that the government will not comment on inflammatory statements. He said that the appearance of such issues now aim at gaining certain groups' votes. Kuwait's Constitution has guaranteed equality to both man and woman.
Dr Faris Al Wuqayan, a researcher at the Center for Strategic Studies criticized the Salafists Movement's statement, adding that it does not relate to the 'civil state' and democracy at all, and questioned, "Is it okay to benefit from the woman's vote as a voter without granting her our vote as a candidate"? He said such statements take us back to the Middle Ages of Europe because it is not related to the modern era at all, in fact 'the brains that came up with it need treatment.' When asked about the possibility of the so-called edict gaining support among masses, Al-Wquayan said that the voting standards are not determined by religious practices. This is because clergy men's illegal practices and participation in the country's administration, economy, financial companies' administration are well known.
This gives out the idea that ideological religious affiliations are not related to ethical practices, even it stems from a liberal or tribal person. Columnist and political analyst Sami Al-Nisf found it strange for a few to convene and call themselves a movement and then start issuing statements. He said that the Salafists movement that is represented in Kuwait, is the revival of society and that they did not hear such statements from them. Al-Nisf said that Islam is not limited to Kuwait, but it is practiced in 56 countries around the world. He added that many gave women the right to run for office and vote and women are allowed to hold the office of prime minister there.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Kuwait: ‘Very few women at top posts shows nation’s lack of confidence in them’
Arab Times
KUWAIT CITY, May 4: Only 23 Kuwaiti women have been appointed to various leadership posts, including ministers and undersecretaries — a clear indication of the country’s lack of confidence in women as decision makers, Dr Salwa Al-Jassar said during the ‘Women in Business’ conference at the American University in Kuwait Saturday.
Al-Jassar, chairperson of Women Empowerment Center and candidate from the Second Constituency, explained there are four types of women in terms of their contributions to the business sector - the employed who receive regular salaries in accordance with the financial or economic condition of the state, businesswomen, private sector workers, and the disabled who work from home or adequately equipped organizations.
Citing the demographic report published in January 2009, Al-Jassar said there are 1.250 million Kuwaitis out of the 3.3 million total population in the country, and Kuwaiti women constitute around 56 percent of the entire workforce. She added women make up 37 percent of the private sector workforce and 57 percent in the public sector, indicating most of these jobs are educational and administrative in nature.
Work
Al-Jassar pointed out most Kuwaiti women prefer to work in the public sector due to lesser work hours, higher salaries, more secure work conditions, flexible annual leaves, and guaranteed pensions, while the private sector is known for appreciating and rewarding competent employees, honing the skills of employees, and providing more opportunities for external activities.
As for the disadvantages of the public sector, Al-Jassar mentioned nepotism, mismanagement, outright violation of resolutions and laws, failure to reward outstanding employees, masked unemployment, and slow progress. “Women think the private sector is taxing due to longer work hours, lack of job guarantee, fewer vacation leaves, gender discrimination, and tough duties,” she opined.
Al-Jassar is currently conducting a study for Al-Kawthar Center on the obstacles that GCC women are facing in the business arena, as well as initiatives taken by different government and private institutions to support women. She said Kuwaiti women have to overcome a myriad of challenges to be recognized as a tough competitor in the business world.
Talking about the social obstacles, Al-Jassar affirmed Article 41 of the Constitution stipulates gender equality, yet gender discrimination still widespread in the private sector. She said women have limited options in the private sector as they have been restricted to certain jobs, thereby, discouraging Kuwaiti women to work in private companies. She added the general belief that work hinders mothers from performing their household duties efficiently is another obstacle. “These impediments led to the prevalence of social and financial dependence on men among families, instead of a healthier partnership. We should not also forget the administrative obstacles to women’s quest for leadership posts due to lack of trust in their abilities. Kuwait University consists of around 30 faculties, only two of which are run by female deans,” stated Al-Jassar.
About the personality-related hindrances, Al-Jassar mentioned lack of self-esteem among women, which prevents them from overcoming their fears and facing challenges. She said the lack of training and preparatory courses for women have also put them one step behind their male counterparts in terms of qualifications and expertise.
On the financial obstacles, Al-Jassar revealed the Middle Eastern societies still frown upon women running their own business due to lack of trust in their abilities, social norms and the ‘consumption’ mindset of women.
“Rapid technological developments made it even harder for women to find a niche in the private sector as computers can now perform functions previously done by humans,” Al-Jassar lamented. She admitted women had a difficult time keeping up with the rapid technological changes; hence, men have been given more privileges than women. “Our educational system falls short in teaching young women to give them a competitive edge in the labor market,” she concluded.
By Dahlia Kholaif
Arab Times Staff
KUWAIT CITY, May 4: Only 23 Kuwaiti women have been appointed to various leadership posts, including ministers and undersecretaries — a clear indication of the country’s lack of confidence in women as decision makers, Dr Salwa Al-Jassar said during the ‘Women in Business’ conference at the American University in Kuwait Saturday.
Al-Jassar, chairperson of Women Empowerment Center and candidate from the Second Constituency, explained there are four types of women in terms of their contributions to the business sector - the employed who receive regular salaries in accordance with the financial or economic condition of the state, businesswomen, private sector workers, and the disabled who work from home or adequately equipped organizations.
Citing the demographic report published in January 2009, Al-Jassar said there are 1.250 million Kuwaitis out of the 3.3 million total population in the country, and Kuwaiti women constitute around 56 percent of the entire workforce. She added women make up 37 percent of the private sector workforce and 57 percent in the public sector, indicating most of these jobs are educational and administrative in nature.
Work
Al-Jassar pointed out most Kuwaiti women prefer to work in the public sector due to lesser work hours, higher salaries, more secure work conditions, flexible annual leaves, and guaranteed pensions, while the private sector is known for appreciating and rewarding competent employees, honing the skills of employees, and providing more opportunities for external activities.
As for the disadvantages of the public sector, Al-Jassar mentioned nepotism, mismanagement, outright violation of resolutions and laws, failure to reward outstanding employees, masked unemployment, and slow progress. “Women think the private sector is taxing due to longer work hours, lack of job guarantee, fewer vacation leaves, gender discrimination, and tough duties,” she opined.
Al-Jassar is currently conducting a study for Al-Kawthar Center on the obstacles that GCC women are facing in the business arena, as well as initiatives taken by different government and private institutions to support women. She said Kuwaiti women have to overcome a myriad of challenges to be recognized as a tough competitor in the business world.
Talking about the social obstacles, Al-Jassar affirmed Article 41 of the Constitution stipulates gender equality, yet gender discrimination still widespread in the private sector. She said women have limited options in the private sector as they have been restricted to certain jobs, thereby, discouraging Kuwaiti women to work in private companies. She added the general belief that work hinders mothers from performing their household duties efficiently is another obstacle. “These impediments led to the prevalence of social and financial dependence on men among families, instead of a healthier partnership. We should not also forget the administrative obstacles to women’s quest for leadership posts due to lack of trust in their abilities. Kuwait University consists of around 30 faculties, only two of which are run by female deans,” stated Al-Jassar.
About the personality-related hindrances, Al-Jassar mentioned lack of self-esteem among women, which prevents them from overcoming their fears and facing challenges. She said the lack of training and preparatory courses for women have also put them one step behind their male counterparts in terms of qualifications and expertise.
On the financial obstacles, Al-Jassar revealed the Middle Eastern societies still frown upon women running their own business due to lack of trust in their abilities, social norms and the ‘consumption’ mindset of women.
“Rapid technological developments made it even harder for women to find a niche in the private sector as computers can now perform functions previously done by humans,” Al-Jassar lamented. She admitted women had a difficult time keeping up with the rapid technological changes; hence, men have been given more privileges than women. “Our educational system falls short in teaching young women to give them a competitive edge in the labor market,” she concluded.
By Dahlia Kholaif
Arab Times Staff
Kuwait: Kuwait's Salafis call voting for women a sin
Al Arabiya
KUWAIT (Ahmed Abdullah)
Kuwait's Islamist Salafi movement called Monday for a boycott of women candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections on the grounds that public offices are reserved only for men, sparking outrage from female candidates and activists.
Voting for women is considered a sin, said Fuhaid al-Hailam, of the Islamic Salafi Alliance politburo, according to the Salafi's interpretation of a saying by the Prophet Muhammad to the effect that a nation will not prosper if a woman leads it.
Election sin
" What is prohibited as an aim is also prohibited as a means "
Fuhaid al-Hailam, Islamic Salafi Alliance politburo"What is prohibited as an aim is also prohibited as a means," he told Al Arabiya. "Voting for women is the means of their access to parliamentary membership, thus it is prohibited."
Although Kuwaiti law permits women to hold seat in parliament, Hailam called on female candidates to withdraw from the elections to protect themselves and the voters from a practice he labeled as contrary to Islam.
Nineteen of the 282 registered candidates are women, down from the 28 who registered last year and 31 in 2006, according to the Kuwait Times. The Majlis al-Umma, Kuwait’s National Assembly, was dissolved in March in the aftermath of tension between the executive and legislative authorities.
He denied the fatwa, or religious ruling, is politically motivated to undermine women's chances to win seats in the parliament.
"This has always been the movement's stance and we have always objected to giving women the right to run in elections. We are reiterating our opinion now because it is the right time to declare how legitimate voting is,” he said, adding that the movement recommended that the law not be applied.
Strident objections
" Kuwaiti laws that gave women the right to run for parliament are not against Islamic laws "
Fatima al-Abdeli, candidateCritics slammed the conservative Salafi movement’s statements and urged the government to distance itself from such a position.
Parliamentary candidate Fatima al-Abdeli, a woman’s rights activist who ran in the two previous elections, dismissed the call to withdraw and said the statements betrayed a state of intellectual bankruptcy.
"They have nothing to say," she told Al Arabiya. "Kuwaiti laws that gave women the right to run for parliament are not against Islamic laws."
Woman’s rights activist Fatima al-Abdeli ran in the two previous elections
Abdeli called upon the Kuwaiti government to declare the movement's statements void and said that female candidates intend to organize a press conference to respond to the fatwa.
"This fatwa will harm women candidates and the Kuwaiti people might be deceived by it. We are not going to stand still while this happens. Women should not be told what to do," said Abdeli.
Observers give women better odds of winning seats in this year’s elections despite failing to win any in the 2006 or 2008 elections, citing more extensive political experience women gained during this time and greater acceptance of women's role in public life.
Former Planning Minister Massouma al-Mubarak, the first female cabinet member, was appointed in 2005 and is running in the 2009 elections, a move that observers said shows that women are gaining momentum. Women were granted the right to vote in 2005.
The election war flared when several candidates were arrested and charged with slandering the government. Some parties like the Ummah party, which is not officially recognized, said it would boycott the elections.
KUWAIT (Ahmed Abdullah)
Kuwait's Islamist Salafi movement called Monday for a boycott of women candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections on the grounds that public offices are reserved only for men, sparking outrage from female candidates and activists.
Voting for women is considered a sin, said Fuhaid al-Hailam, of the Islamic Salafi Alliance politburo, according to the Salafi's interpretation of a saying by the Prophet Muhammad to the effect that a nation will not prosper if a woman leads it.
Election sin
" What is prohibited as an aim is also prohibited as a means "
Fuhaid al-Hailam, Islamic Salafi Alliance politburo"What is prohibited as an aim is also prohibited as a means," he told Al Arabiya. "Voting for women is the means of their access to parliamentary membership, thus it is prohibited."
Although Kuwaiti law permits women to hold seat in parliament, Hailam called on female candidates to withdraw from the elections to protect themselves and the voters from a practice he labeled as contrary to Islam.
Nineteen of the 282 registered candidates are women, down from the 28 who registered last year and 31 in 2006, according to the Kuwait Times. The Majlis al-Umma, Kuwait’s National Assembly, was dissolved in March in the aftermath of tension between the executive and legislative authorities.
He denied the fatwa, or religious ruling, is politically motivated to undermine women's chances to win seats in the parliament.
"This has always been the movement's stance and we have always objected to giving women the right to run in elections. We are reiterating our opinion now because it is the right time to declare how legitimate voting is,” he said, adding that the movement recommended that the law not be applied.
Strident objections
" Kuwaiti laws that gave women the right to run for parliament are not against Islamic laws "
Fatima al-Abdeli, candidateCritics slammed the conservative Salafi movement’s statements and urged the government to distance itself from such a position.
Parliamentary candidate Fatima al-Abdeli, a woman’s rights activist who ran in the two previous elections, dismissed the call to withdraw and said the statements betrayed a state of intellectual bankruptcy.
"They have nothing to say," she told Al Arabiya. "Kuwaiti laws that gave women the right to run for parliament are not against Islamic laws."
Woman’s rights activist Fatima al-Abdeli ran in the two previous elections
Abdeli called upon the Kuwaiti government to declare the movement's statements void and said that female candidates intend to organize a press conference to respond to the fatwa.
"This fatwa will harm women candidates and the Kuwaiti people might be deceived by it. We are not going to stand still while this happens. Women should not be told what to do," said Abdeli.
Observers give women better odds of winning seats in this year’s elections despite failing to win any in the 2006 or 2008 elections, citing more extensive political experience women gained during this time and greater acceptance of women's role in public life.
Former Planning Minister Massouma al-Mubarak, the first female cabinet member, was appointed in 2005 and is running in the 2009 elections, a move that observers said shows that women are gaining momentum. Women were granted the right to vote in 2005.
The election war flared when several candidates were arrested and charged with slandering the government. Some parties like the Ummah party, which is not officially recognized, said it would boycott the elections.
Iran: Women Call For Gender Equality Ahead Of Iran's Presidential Vote
Liberty Radio
May 03, 2009
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Former lawmaker and journalist Azam Taleghani is one of two women to have announced plans to run in Iran's presidential election in June.
In the unlikely event Taleghani were to become president, she would encounter obstacles not often associated with a head of state.
To attend state functions abroad, for example, she would need her husband's permission to leave the country.
If she were to testify before a court, her testimony would be worth half that of a man, and she would still not have equal divorce or inheritance rights.
is because, despite her status as the holder of the country's highest office, Taleghani would still be a woman, making her subject to the same forms of legal discrimination faced by all women in the Islamic republic.
The disparity between the sexes has led Taleghani and a number of other women's rights advocates and prominent figures such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi to call on presidential candidates to put equality for women on their agendas.
They have created a new coalition that includes secular members, national religious activists, former lawmakers, journalists, student activists, and others.
Joining the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and changing Iran's Constitution in order to include gender equality "without any conditions" are their main demands.
'Relatively Open Atmosphere'
Women's rights activists see the "relatively open atmosphere" in the run-up to the June 12 election as a good opportunity to renew their demands for equal rights.
Marzieh Mortazi Langarudi, one of the members of the new coalition, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that activists hope to increase awareness of the forms of discrimination women face in Iran.
They have learned that they should set their demands in a way that can be measured."It makes the candidates committed and brings their attention to women's demands," Langarudi says. "At the same time, it increases the demands in the society and in a way it helps the [democratization process]."
Activists fighting against legal discrimination in Iran have come under growing state pressure in the past four years and a number of them have been summoned to court, harassed, and detained. Several have even been jailed.
A leading women's magazine was closed down last year for "offering a dark picture of the Islamic republic" and for "compromising the psyche and the mental health" of its readers.
Activists says there have also been attempts by the government to keep women at home and limit their role in society, despite the fact that women account for more than 60 percent of students attending university.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has said that women in Iran enjoy the highest level of freedom.
In a comment made in 2005 during his election campaign, Ahmadinejad said that women's adherence to strict rules on dress and appearance, including that their hair be hidden, should not be an issue. Yet following his election, the crackdown on dress intensified, resulting in many women being detained and harassed for not respecting the full Islamic hijab.
Ways That Can Be Measured
Bahareh Hedayat, a women's rights campaigner and member of Iran's largest pro-reform student group, tells RFE/RL that Ahmadinejad's presidency has demonstrated that women cannot rely on election promises alone.
"It actually served as a good experience among women's rights activists and also among others who are fighting for their rights," Hedayat says. "They have learned that they should set their demands in a way that can be measured."
Bahareh HedayatHedayat said women's rights activists are calling on presidential candidates to announce concrete plans for giving women equal rights. She said they have not endorsed any of the candidates.
Hedayat and other women's rights advocates want several articles of Iran's Constitution to be amended, with the principle of unconditional gender equality to be included in them. Among the changes sought is an addition to Article 21 stating that "the government must ensure the rights of women in all respects, in conformity with Islamic criteria."
Some critics believe that such changes under the current Islamic establishment are not realistic. The president has limited power and the real power is in the hands of bodies controlled by the conservatives.
But activists believe a serious commitment to women's rights by the country's future government could lead to positive changes.
Powerful Guardians Council
During a press conference last week in which the activists laid out their demands, presidential candidate Taleghani said that some officials see women as "slaves and second-class citizens."
Taleghani, the daughter of a prominent ayatollah, has previously attempted to run for president, but in the end was disqualified by the powerful Guardians Council that must approve each election candidate.
In 2005, all 89 women who registered to run for president were rejected, including a conservative member of parliament. The Guardians Councils effectively said that women cannot run for the presidency, citing a passage in Iran's Constitution that says the president should be elected from among "religious and political rejal."
Rejal is an Arabic word that means "personalities." While many say "rejal" includes women, the Guardians Council has said in the past that the word refers only to men.
However, this year a spokesman from that same oversight body said that there are no "legal restraints" preventing women from seeking presidential office.
Guardians Council spokesman Abbas Ali Khadkhodayi was quoted as saying on April 11 that the council "has never disqualified candidates only because they have been men or women," and that disqualifications resulted only from potential candidates failing to have the necessary qualifications.
Some welcomed the comment, while others remain skeptical.
"The question is, why in the past 30 years has no woman been deemed qualified by the Guardians Council to run as a candidate
in a presidential election?" asks women's rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh.
May 03, 2009
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Former lawmaker and journalist Azam Taleghani is one of two women to have announced plans to run in Iran's presidential election in June.
In the unlikely event Taleghani were to become president, she would encounter obstacles not often associated with a head of state.
To attend state functions abroad, for example, she would need her husband's permission to leave the country.
If she were to testify before a court, her testimony would be worth half that of a man, and she would still not have equal divorce or inheritance rights.
is because, despite her status as the holder of the country's highest office, Taleghani would still be a woman, making her subject to the same forms of legal discrimination faced by all women in the Islamic republic.
The disparity between the sexes has led Taleghani and a number of other women's rights advocates and prominent figures such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi to call on presidential candidates to put equality for women on their agendas.
They have created a new coalition that includes secular members, national religious activists, former lawmakers, journalists, student activists, and others.
Joining the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and changing Iran's Constitution in order to include gender equality "without any conditions" are their main demands.
'Relatively Open Atmosphere'
Women's rights activists see the "relatively open atmosphere" in the run-up to the June 12 election as a good opportunity to renew their demands for equal rights.
Marzieh Mortazi Langarudi, one of the members of the new coalition, told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that activists hope to increase awareness of the forms of discrimination women face in Iran.
They have learned that they should set their demands in a way that can be measured."It makes the candidates committed and brings their attention to women's demands," Langarudi says. "At the same time, it increases the demands in the society and in a way it helps the [democratization process]."
Activists fighting against legal discrimination in Iran have come under growing state pressure in the past four years and a number of them have been summoned to court, harassed, and detained. Several have even been jailed.
A leading women's magazine was closed down last year for "offering a dark picture of the Islamic republic" and for "compromising the psyche and the mental health" of its readers.
Activists says there have also been attempts by the government to keep women at home and limit their role in society, despite the fact that women account for more than 60 percent of students attending university.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has said that women in Iran enjoy the highest level of freedom.
In a comment made in 2005 during his election campaign, Ahmadinejad said that women's adherence to strict rules on dress and appearance, including that their hair be hidden, should not be an issue. Yet following his election, the crackdown on dress intensified, resulting in many women being detained and harassed for not respecting the full Islamic hijab.
Ways That Can Be Measured
Bahareh Hedayat, a women's rights campaigner and member of Iran's largest pro-reform student group, tells RFE/RL that Ahmadinejad's presidency has demonstrated that women cannot rely on election promises alone.
"It actually served as a good experience among women's rights activists and also among others who are fighting for their rights," Hedayat says. "They have learned that they should set their demands in a way that can be measured."
Bahareh HedayatHedayat said women's rights activists are calling on presidential candidates to announce concrete plans for giving women equal rights. She said they have not endorsed any of the candidates.
Hedayat and other women's rights advocates want several articles of Iran's Constitution to be amended, with the principle of unconditional gender equality to be included in them. Among the changes sought is an addition to Article 21 stating that "the government must ensure the rights of women in all respects, in conformity with Islamic criteria."
Some critics believe that such changes under the current Islamic establishment are not realistic. The president has limited power and the real power is in the hands of bodies controlled by the conservatives.
But activists believe a serious commitment to women's rights by the country's future government could lead to positive changes.
Powerful Guardians Council
During a press conference last week in which the activists laid out their demands, presidential candidate Taleghani said that some officials see women as "slaves and second-class citizens."
Taleghani, the daughter of a prominent ayatollah, has previously attempted to run for president, but in the end was disqualified by the powerful Guardians Council that must approve each election candidate.
In 2005, all 89 women who registered to run for president were rejected, including a conservative member of parliament. The Guardians Councils effectively said that women cannot run for the presidency, citing a passage in Iran's Constitution that says the president should be elected from among "religious and political rejal."
Rejal is an Arabic word that means "personalities." While many say "rejal" includes women, the Guardians Council has said in the past that the word refers only to men.
However, this year a spokesman from that same oversight body said that there are no "legal restraints" preventing women from seeking presidential office.
Guardians Council spokesman Abbas Ali Khadkhodayi was quoted as saying on April 11 that the council "has never disqualified candidates only because they have been men or women," and that disqualifications resulted only from potential candidates failing to have the necessary qualifications.
Some welcomed the comment, while others remain skeptical.
"The question is, why in the past 30 years has no woman been deemed qualified by the Guardians Council to run as a candidate
in a presidential election?" asks women's rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh.
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