Asking women to show their face at polling stations is "not an offence"
Allowed to vote for the first time, women are the majority of voters in June 29 elections. Men are not allowed to impose their choice on wives and sisters.
Kuwait City (AsiaNews) "It will not be considered offensive" for a polling-station official or other government officials in Kuwait to ask a woman to uncover her face so that she may be recognized. This according to the Interior Ministry's Director of Electoral Affairs, as reported by Arab Times. Letting one's face be seen from beneath a "nigab", the Arab version of a burqa, in order to be recognized, is one of the problems that has arisen from the fact that women will be voting for the first time in Kuwaiti elections, where women make up the majority of electors, even if they will unlikely make up the majority of elected candidates. Kuwaiti women will in fact be able to vote for the first time in their country in elections set for June 29, thanks to a "revolutionary" law of May of last year. There are in fact 195,000 women eligible to vote (57% of the electorate), while male voters amount to 145,000. As for candidates, only 32 are women (as opposed to 370 men), representing 15 out of a total of 25 voting districts, 8 of which are from the tribal areas, where women are obliged to wear the "niqab." "The situation of Kuwaiti women is disastrous," said Aisha Al Rasheed, a journalist who is running for election. "There are many laws," she added, "that need to be amended to improve women's conditions and I will work for that if I am elected." In particular, women lament discrimination in family matters, employment and on questions regarding the nationality of their children. "I want you to vote for me not because I am a woman but rather because I carry your concerns," said another candidate, Rula Dashti, President of the Kuwait Economic Society, in speaking of her programme to a large group of men and women.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Religious Affairs cancelled the fatwa that gave husbands the right to tell their wife for whom to vote. The fatwa had been declared by the dean of the Sharia (Islamic law) Faculty of the University of Kuwait. The Ministry of Religious Affairs, instead, affirmed the right of each individual to choose a candidate and expressly forbid men to put pressure on their wives or sisters. "No one can impose his own choice," the Interior Ministry said.
Information specialist May Hajjaj told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that election campaigns in general have not changed with the participation of women, apart perhaps from the quality of tents used for polling stations: "women have almost produced carbon copies of men's campaigns." In fact, as male candidates continue to campaign in the usual way, women are using the same methods, with the simple addition of "our sister the voter" in their political addresses.
According to the Middle East Times, there is no indication that women voters will vote for women candidates.
.png)
15/01/2009
