Kuwait: After a video of a man beating his wife on a Kuwaiti sidewalk circulated on social media this month, outrage grew when local media reported the cause of the assault: the woguy had taken on a task without her husband’s permission.
It is one of many attacks, some fatal, on women in recent years that draw attention to gender-based violence, political representation and economic rights as Kuwaitis prepare to vote Thursday in a rare demonstration of regional democracy.
Kuwait is the only Arab country in the Gulf that offers its citizens a genuine say in how they are governed. But 17 years after women were added to the ballot, there is no single woman in the 50 members of the National Assembly.
“We are still convincing men that we are human, which is crazy,” said activist Almaha Al Mari, 27. Generous welfare state financed with the country’s oil wealth.
Only a handful of some three hundred female parliamentary candidates “— totaling only 22 women — focused on security and equality, adding issues of women’s pay, inheritance and ownership. However, their voices have been stifled by anger over corruption and demands from some for the meeting to receive more powers in their fight with a government appointed through the emir.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, women are calling for an end to repressive policies “or the conquest of secure freedoms. The death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody in Iran this month after she was arrested by morality police for allegedly the country’s dress code has sparked the biggest popular challenge to regulations imposed on women since the 1979 revolution.
Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has eased restrictions on women.
Activists complain that the push for equality in Kuwait has stalled. Women do not want a man’s permission to travel or work. In practice, however, they are required to conform to the demands of a largely classical and conservative society.
“Most men think feminism is a strange thing, that’s why we’re susceptible,” said commentator Hamad Al Jasser, who has 53,000 followers on Twitter. “We don’t think it suits the desires of our society. “
Kuwaiti women have held leadership positions in business, government and the foreign service for decades, and have been legislators in previous assemblies. But the most recent and widely publicized attacks on women have shaken the foundations of the legislation and freedoms on which their progress is based.
Maasouma Mubarak, a former MP and prime minister in Kuwait’s government, said women will also have to join her representation.
“We can’t go wrong,” she said, “some women don’t believe politics is a women’s domain. “
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