Women Inch Closer Toward Suffrage
Kuwait’s Cabinet approved a draft law allowing women to vote and run in parliamentary polls, moving them a step closer to full political rights they have sought for decades in the conservative Gulf Arab state.
The draft needs Parliament’s approval to become law. A decree by Kuwait’s emir, Sheik Jabbar al Ahmed al Sabah, giving women the vote was narrowly defeated in the 50-man house in 1999 by an alliance of Islamist and conservative tribal lawmakers.
Kuwaiti women have been fighting for suffrage for more than 40 years.
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