VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKU #0174 0371350
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061350Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8218
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS KUWAIT 000174 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KWMN KDEM KU WOMEN POLITICAL RIGHTS
SUBJECT: PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE APPROVES "LANDMARK WOMEN'S 
RIGHTS BILL" INTRODUCED BY ISLAMISTS 
 
REF: A. 06 KUWAIT 4579 
     ¶B. 06 KUWAIT 3984 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified; not for Internet distribution. 
 
¶1.  (U) On February 4, Parliament's Women's Affairs Committee 
approved a bill, introduced by Islamist MPs (reftels), that 
would give Kuwaiti women a host of new benefits, including 
the right to apply for government housing, longer paid 
maternity and mourning leave, unemployment allowances for 
stay at home mothers, and partial salaries for wives 
accompanying their husbands on study or diplomatic assignment 
abroad.  Many of these benefits are already provided to 
Kuwaiti men.  The committee's decision received front-page 
coverage in both English-language dailies on February 5.  The 
Kuwait Times ran the story under the headline: "National 
Assembly panel approves landmark women's rights bill." 
According to the article, the legislation is "in line with 
Islamic Sharia law."  The bill must still be passed by 
Parliament and approved by the Government before it takes 
affect.  The Chairman of the Women's Affairs Committee, Salah 
Ashour, said he expected Parliament to vote on the bill in 
March or April. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Salah Ashour told PolOff on February 5 that he was 
also planning to hold a major conference in late March or 
early April on issues facing Kuwaiti women.  The conference 
will bring together prominent female researchers as well as 
government officials and will focus on unequal access to 
social security benefits and housing, unequal treatment of 
women in personal status law, and how to encourage women to 
get more involved in politics.  He said major changes are 
needed in all of these areas, but placed special emphasis on 
amending Kuwaiti law so that a Kuwaiti woman can pass 
citizenship on to her children (currently only children of 
Kuwaiti men get citizenship) and so that a Kuwaiti woman and 
her non-Kuwaiti husband and children can be considered a 
Kuwaiti family (currently a family is defined as a Kuwaiti 
man with a wife and children, thus depriving the children of 
Kuwaiti women of many of the government benefits afforded to 
Kuwaiti families).  He predicted that there would be 
opposition to such changes behind closed doors, but that few 
MPs would take the political risk of voting against it in an 
open vote in the parliament. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Ashour stressed the importance of increasing 
women's political involvement, and noted that aside from a 
small group of activists most women either oppose women's 
political rights or see politics as a way to solve their 
personal bureaucratic problems rather than as a way to 
address larger issues facing Kuwaiti women.  He expressed his 
opposition to the idea floated by some women activists of 
having a female quota in parliament, since it would violate 
the constitution.  He prefers a system of voting "lists." 
Each list would include at least one woman, thereby 
facilitating women reaching the parliament.  The details of 
this system, such as whether candidates would have to run as 
part of lists and whether voters would have to vote for lists 
rather than individual candidates, are not clear. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Comment: This is a clear example of the impact of 
women's suffrage on politics in Kuwait.  Although none of the 
27 female candidates in last year's elections were elected, 
male parliamentarians are now competing to promote the 
interests of their female constituents, who now make up the 
majority of the electorate.  As is often the case with 
Kuwait's Parliament, those efforts are still focused 
primarily on obtaining more government benefits, not on 
implementing the broader political and economic reforms many 
here argue are crucial for development.  End comment. 
 
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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s 
 
Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
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TUELLER