FOREIGN FUN

Besides “God Is Great!” Kuwaiti Women Chant “The Vote Is Great!"

Kuwaiti women, who last year won suffrage and the right to run for office, have a new chant in addition to the usual Muslim “God is great!” It’s “The vote is great!”

They turned up in huge numbers at the first elections women in the entire Gulf region have been allowed to participate in, and, while it appears that none of the women candidates won office, at least they were able to compete for the prize.

``I don't know how to describe my feelings, I am so happy, it's a beautiful day as women practice their right,'' female candidate Hind al-Shaikh said. ``I hope a woman makes it.''

During the run up to the election, their new clout was right out there for the men to genuflect before.

For instance, hundreds of women attended a speech by one Walid al-Tabtabaei, a incumbent Islamist. He is a member of Parliament who originally opposed giving them the vote, insisting such a commonsense instance of equality would fly in the face of Islamic teaching, but apparently he got the wakeup call. Now he was wooing the ladies with such amenities as air-conditioned tents with comfy chairs, goodies to nibble and sip, and staffers to answer questions. As al-Tabtabaei told the attentive voters, "For the men, we held one rally. For you ladies, we have held five."

Lulua Abdullah al-Omari, a mother of four, said, "Women suddenly have more value in this society.”

Daring to ride the nascent crest of liberalization, a columnist for the Kuwait daily Al Rai al Aam and a ministerial adviser, asked, “Will this country be just another sheikdom or a nation of institutions?"

While a poll by the Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas indicated that most women would be influenced by the voting choices of their husbands, there is still at least a beam of light from a part of the world that has seemed distressingly enveloped in its Dark Age recesses.

"The competition is very strong," one female observer observed. "There are a few of the women candidates who were strong, but this is democracy — you can't force anyone to vote a certain way."

We hope the ladies do well. It will be good for the men, not to mention the rest of a world made anxious by the region’s philosophical nadir.

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