Feedback from these men's meetings, called "diwaniya", was positive with the men often noting that the women generally had fuller platforms and plans for what they would like to see done by parliament in Kuwait than some of their male counterparts. All in all, Dashti emphasizes that Kuwaiti women demonstrated well in summer 2006: "We know politics."
In order to aid women's enfranchisement, at the very same time in May 2006 that the Emir of Kuwait had called for snap elections, he ordered the election boards all around the country to automatically register to vote all women who had proper civil IDs and were eligible according to the law. This is certainly one reason why women were able to outvote men in many townships throughout the country.
Sadly, even with women making up over 53% of the total votes for the National Parliament, none of these 27 women was actually elected to office in that summer of 2006. Nonetheless, Dashti notes that women definitely influenced the campaigns of all political groupings in the country that election period by emphasizing issues related to education, women, family, society and citizenship-as well as many matters of which had not been to any great degree part of such campaigns before.
For example, one woman candidate in one district which largely consists of disenfranchised Bedouins ran on a platform to give her husband and many other males and females there full citizenship rights-a claim many have been making since Kuwait became a country in 1961. Because this particular female candidate lived in a district where women significantly outnumber men, all other candidates in that district had to take on the issues raised by this first-time female politician.
Similarly, changes in how male candidates ran their own campaigns occurred all over Kuwait. Some male candidates, for the first time, even hired female advisors to help them run their own campaigns. In addition, Dashti notes, thousands of women-many of whom had never participated in politics before became involved in supporting both male and female candidates at the grass roots level.
Thousands of more women for the first time also simply went to sit under the same tents as their male voting counterparts to hear various candidates speak and took time to ask these campaigners questions about issues that mattered to them--and that they felt society needed to worry about. For example, poor education is of great concern throughout Kuwait. Other areas of concern in the Kuwaiti society include the need for better health care, job place issues, and youth problems, like drug abuse.
Dr. Rola Dashti says she will never forget the glorious day back in May 2005 when women were first given the franchise in parliament. She indicated she had tears in her eyes that day, and this moment will likely be recalled as the highpoint in her life. However, she ended her speech by indicating how proud she was when on one of the hottest days of the entire year in June 2006, many women stood for over three hours in line to cast their votes for the first time in history.
When asked what she thought about the possibilities of women being more successful in coming elections, Dashti said she, as women candidate in local elections herself, certainly had now learned what it was like to run a campaign for office. Many others had gained experience in 2006 which will help them the next time around.
Nevertheless, Dashti did indicate that she preferred something like an affirmative access quota of 25% to enable women to overcome historical baggage, tradition and structural biases in the Kuwaiti system--in order to make it impossible for women to represent their peers more fully in future campaigns. (This sort of affirmative access quota would not automatically give 25% of the seats to women's candidates but would allow historically adversely affected groups of both men and women to gain fuller political representation.)
VOTING TENDENCIES AND BIASES OF KUWAITIS
The final speaker at the AWARE Center on that night of May 23, 2007 was Kuwait University professor of sociology, Dr. Khadeeja Al-Mahameed who has not only been politically active herself but spent much of 2005 and 2006, i.e. in the days leading up to the national elections in June 2006, surveying Kuwaiti townships in a rigorous academic manner in order to comprehend what the most influential factors in life and politics for the country's adult population.
Her study involved equally (50%-50%) males and females of voting age in 16 districts of the country. There were 1600 participants who were asked to answer fairly detailed questions on what thoughts or authorities influenced their decision-making process in the year leading up to national elections in Kuwait, i.e. that year involving female participation in elections for the first time. The results of her survey point to why women failed to win any national seats in their first attempts at national office as political candidates.
The types of questions undertaken in al-Mahameed's research included one similar to this:
--When making decisions about whether women should be active in politics, what influences your opinion the most?
(a) Fatwa of an imam
(b) Personal opinion
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
