VZCZCXRO7932
OO RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHKU #0505/01 0981006
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 081006Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8726
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000505 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ARP, G/IWI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KWMN KU
SUBJECT: FEMALE LEADERS PAINT BLEAK PICTURE OF WOMEN'S 
RIGHTS FOR CONGRESSWOMAN SANCHEZ 
 
REF: KUWAIT 489 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified; Not for Internet Distribution. 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  Summary:  Members of the Women's Network (WIN) 
told Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) on April 7 that 
women still face major professional, political, and legal 
obstacles to achieving equality with men in Kuwait.  Some of 
the problems come from discrimination in the workplace. 
Others come from women themselves, who often oppose greater 
roles for women in the public sphere.  The women attributed a 
deterioration in their rights over the past several decades 
to the rise of an intolerant form of Islam.  The activists 
also mentioned Kuwaiti women's history of self-reliance and 
described their plans to reassert their role in society 
through media campaigns, entrepreneurship and leadership 
training.  Sanchez said women in the U.S. face similar 
problems to those described by the Kuwaiti women.  She talked 
about Nancy Pelosi's rise to Speaker of the House, citing it 
as an example of how difficult it is for women to break 
gender barriers but as an example of what can be achieved 
through hard work.  End Summary. 
 
Activists Say Women Face Major Problems 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Members of the Women's Network (aka "Women in 
Network" or WIN) told Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) 
on April 7 that women face major professional, political, and 
legal obstacles to achieving equality with men.  Secretary 
General of WIN Dr. Fatima Al-Abdali, whose day job is 
Director of the Health, Safety and Environment Group at 
Kuwait Oil Company, described a recent session she held with 
women engineers in the early stages of their career.  All the 
women said they were discriminated against in terms of 
promotions and evaluation.  A younger member of WIN chimed in 
that women have to work twice as hard as men because they 
need to constantly prove themselves as well as manage their 
families. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Dr. Rola Dashti, a prominent women's activist and 
head of the Kuwait Economic Society (KES), added that KES 
studies on voter attitudes suggested that large percentages 
of women either opposed outright or did not actively support 
the election of women to parliament.  Maryam Bushehri, the 
office director for independent MP Marzouq Al-Ghanim, noted 
that during door-to-door election campaigning in 2006, she 
found that women even in rich, well-educated areas thought 
women should be staying home rather than working. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Several of the participants pointed out that in 
the 1960s and 1970s Kuwaiti women enjoyed more equality than 
today.  Layla Al-Awadhi, an activist in her late fifties 
dressed in very conservative Islamic dress, attributed the 
deterioration in women's equality to an intolerant, extremist 
form of Islam that has swept Kuwait.  Nadia Al-Harbi agreed, 
noting that men cast tribal, anti-women policies in Islamic 
terms, and people are afraid to be seen as criticizing Islam. 
 Dr. Al-Abdali added that women's lack of political awareness 
at the grassroots level was a major barrier to their 
advancement politically and socially.  Dr. Dashti summed up 
matters by telling Representative Sanchez that women were 
fighting to create a major ideological break in Kuwaiti 
society by convincing people that women can participate in 
the public sphere. 
 
Positive Signs and Active Steps 
------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  The activists told Congresswoman Sanchez that 
there were positive signs as well.  They pointed to a woman 
running for the board of the local cooperative society in 
Jahra, Kuwait's most socially conservative area, as something 
that would have been unthinkable previously.  Lawyer Najla 
Al-Nakki noted that Kuwaiti women have a history of 
self-reliance that goes back to the time when Kuwaiti men 
would leave for months at a time as sailors or pearl-divers. 
She sees it as a matter of time before women regain their 
assertiveness. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  WIN members also noted their efforts to redress 
these problems, including through their cooperation with MEPI 
to build an advocacy campaign for a women's quota in the 
parliament (reftel), which they refer to as the "Partnership 
Law."  Bushehri is organizing a campaign to encourage women 
to be entrepreneurs.  Layla Al-Sarraf, a younger member of 
WIN who writes for the Al-Qabas Arabic daily, is working on 
media advocacy campaigns for women.  Dr. Dashti said she 
wanted to create a women's political institute to churn out 
several dozen well-qualified women politicians each year who 
 
KUWAIT 00000505  002 OF 002 
 
 
have solid media skills, knowledge of the issues, and 
understanding of how to organize a campaign. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Dr. Dashti concluded by saying the efforts by the 
U.S. and other international bodies to promote 
democratization had been a crucial element in women winning 
their political rights.  She worried that perhaps the will to 
promote democracy abroad was waning given the difficult 
situation in Iraq, and asked Representative Sanchez if the 
U.S. was committed to continued support of democracy efforts. 
 Sanchez responded that in principle there was support for 
democratization, but said she was pessimistic because the 
enormous current budget deficits meant that spending cuts 
were inevitable.  She predicted that military and security 
spending would not be reduced, leaving "extras" such as 
democracy promotion vulnerable. 
 
Sanchez: Power is Taken, Not Given 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Representative Sanchez argued that the problems 
Kuwaiti women faced were the same as those faced by American 
women, especially the fact that women doubt their abilities 
to assume leadership positions.  She advised the women to 
build a "machine" that could channel their political 
aspirations into action, because no one would ever give power 
to the women; women had to take power through hard work.  She 
talked about the rise of Nancy Pelosi to the position of 
Speaker of the House, noting that it required breaking 
ideological barriers to women assuming leadership and nearly 
a year of tough political work. 
 
********************************************* * 
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/ 
********************************************* * 
Tueller