A Beacon for Arab Women

The Kuwaiti parliament’s vote last week to give full political rights to women is a milestone in the Arab world. Countries such as Saudi Arabia don’t even let their women drive, let alone vote -- or still less hold elected office.

Kuwaiti women have struggled for two decades for political equality; the amendment to the country’s election law represents a victory of moderate legislators over hard-line Islamists. As a compromise, it includes a requirement that “females abide by Islamic law.” It will be important to interpret that as loosely as possible; separate polling places for men and women are one possibility. Women outnumber men in the nation of nearly 1 million and could prove a major force in the 2007 parliamentary elections.

A survey last year by Freedom House, a U.S.-based organization that promotes democracy, found that Kuwaitis generally supported giving women the vote but worried that letting them hold high office might violate Islamic precepts, although Muslimmajority countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh have had women prime ministers.

The survey found that increased educational opportunities for Kuwaiti women were a major reason for their advances in the last decade. That’s an important lesson for other countries. Freedom House released a wider survey last week with discouraging conclusions on the status of women in the Middle East and North Africa. The investigation ran through the end of 2003 and found women at a “profound disadvantage” in education, healthcare, economic rights and treatment by police and the courts. Only Egypt, of the 15 nations reviewed, allowed women even to file complaints about gender discrimination.

Another report last week, this one by the World Economic Forum, said of 58 nations examined regarding differences in status between men and women, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan ranked at the bottom. Pakistan and Turkey have had women prime ministers, indicating that a woman at the top of the political pile does not guarantee progress for her sisters. The forum, best known for its meetings in Davos, Switzerland, compared opportunities for women with those of men in the economic, political, health and education sectors. It ranked Sweden No. 1 and the U.S. No. 17.

That shows it’s not just the Arab world that needs to understand that countries are crippled when half the population is marginalized. But it’s the Arab countries that most need to learn that lesson. The annual United Nations-sponsored Arab Human Development Report will address the status of women in more detail next year. Even limited progress would be welcome; Kuwait provides an example of what to do.