VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKU #1529/01 2901117
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171117Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0145
INFO RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 2452
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 1893
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI 1745

UNCLAS KUWAIT 001529 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHITE HOUSE, OFFICE OF THE FIRST LADY 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KPAO KDEM KMPI SCUL SOCI KU
SUBJECT:  SCENESETTER FOR THE FIRST LADY'S VISIT TO KUWAIT 
 
¶1.  (U)  Embassy Kuwait warmly welcomes your visit, which presents a 
terrific opportunity to reaffirm the strong U.S. friendship with 
Kuwait; to recognize the strides Kuwait has made in women's 
activism; and to highlight some of the contributions we have made in 
women's issues and in the field of education.  We have requested a 
meeting for you with Amir Shaykh Sabah Al Sabah and with prominent 
figures in democratization and women's empowerment.  You will also 
have a chance to meet with some of our Middle East Partnership 
Initiative (MEPI) partners, as well as our close contacts in the 
fields of education and health care. 
 
Democratization and Women's Empowerment 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Kuwait's Parliament granted women the right to vote and run 
for elected office in 2005.  Women took advantage of their new 
rights in 2006 and ran for office in national and local elections. 
While women did not win any seats, almost 60 percent of eligible 
women voted, and women candidates and voters succeeded in forcing 
candidates to focus on issues that matter most to women, such as 
education, health care, and women's personal status law.  Even 
candidates who had voted against women's political rights held 
special campaign events to talk to women voters.  The Islamic 
Constitutional Movement (the political wing of Kuwait's Muslim 
Brotherhood) went as far as setting up a women's committee to handle 
its strategy of political outreach to women. 
Some women activists were disheartened with the lack of success for 
female candidates, and have begun to advocate a quota to ensure 
women's representation in parliament. 
 
¶3.  (U) Women have continued their activism since the elections: 
-- Journalist Aisha Al-Reshaid received a Middle East Partnership 
Initiative (MEPI) grant to train women to run effective electoral 
campaigns. 
-- Dr. Rola Dashti received USG funding to carry out polling to 
illuminate which voters are ready to vote for female 
parliamentarians, and which issues women should focus on to win the 
maximum numbers of votes. 
-- Dr. Fatima Al-Abdali's newly-established Women in Network (WIN) 
will reach out to women in tribal areas to encourage them to vote 
and to choose candidates who support women's issues. 
 
¶4.  (U) Parliament's Women's Affairs Committee has proposed a bill 
that offers women generous incentives for taking leave to take care 
of children and ailing family members.  Some liberals have 
criticized the bill because they think it is designed to discourage 
women from getting involved in public life.  Encouraging and 
allowing women to take leadership positions in Kuwaiti society and 
redressing inequalities in Kuwaiti personal status law remain the 
primary challenges for Kuwaiti women. 
 
¶5.  (U) In January, we joined forces with the Government of Kuwait 
to co-host a three-day Conference of Women Leaders in Science, 
Technology and Engineering in Kuwait.  The conference brought 
together more than 270 scientists, entrepreneurs, science 
administrators and graduate students from 20 Muslim-majority 
countries in the Middle East and North Africa.  Under Secretary 
Dobriansky co-hosted the conference and led a delegation of 
distinguished scientists and business leaders from the United 
States.  Conference workshops focused on professional development, 
grant writing, publishing, and development of a research program, 
which helped equip these women with tools to start and sustain 
successful projects and businesses. 
 
MEPI 
 
¶6.  (U) MEPI is active in Kuwait.  Current projects include: 
-- improving the professionalism of journalists; 
-- empowering students to organize on issues that matter to them; 
-- increasing women's involvement in the political system; 
-- developing the political organizational skills of political 
groups; 
-- activating parent-teacher councils; 
-- training civil society groups to make public service 
announcements. 
 
Educational System 
 
¶7.  (U) Schooling is compulsory for all children ages 6 to 14 
(elementary and intermediate levels), and all stages of state 
education, including higher education, are free for Kuwaiti 
citizens.  Students in all Kuwaiti schools study English beginning 
in the second grade.  Kuwaiti public schools are segregated by sex 
beginning in the first grade. Women are granted the same rights to 
education as men.  The Kuwaiti government ensures that each new 
school contains a library and has expanded the collection of books 
in existing school libraries from 230,000 (before the Iraqi 
invasion) to more than 3 million today.  The government has also 
launched a project to connect every government school and library in 
 
Kuwait to the internet.  In 2006, the government introduced a human 
rights and civics curriculum for the first time.  Although private 
schools were established primarily for expatriate children, many 
wealthy and influential Kuwaitis send their children to them, 
including the American School of Kuwait, for their Western 
educational curricula.  Kuwait University and the Public Authority 
for Applied Education and Training are the main Arabic-language 
institutions of higher education.  The American University of Kuwait 
and the Gulf University of Science and Technology conduct classes in 
English and follow American curricula. 
 
¶8.  (U) Despite Kuwait's large budget surpluses in recent years, the 
educational system remains a source of some controversy.  Many 
citizens complain of overcrowding in the public schools and some 
schools were late in opening this fall due to organizational 
problems.  Liberal Education Minister Dr. Nouriya, the only current 
female minister, has come under fire recently from Islamist MPs for 
mismanagement.  Liberals insist, with reason, that the Islamists' 
accusations stem from their personal antagonism to the liberal 
minister. 
 
¶9.  (U) We enjoy good relations with the major universities in 
Kuwait.  The American NGO AMIDEAST is active in Kuwait, both in the 
area of student counseling for those wishing to study at an American 
university, and in teaching English as a Foreign Language to less 
advantaged Kuwaiti youth at the high school level through the 
USG-funded microscholarship program, ACCESS. 
 
Health Care 
------------------ 
 
¶10.  (U) Kuwait has one of the most modern health care 
infrastructures in the region, but mismanagement is a problem, and 
the health care system is not nearly as effective as it should be 
for a country with Kuwait's wealth.  More than 80% of all health 
services are provided by the public sector, mainly by the Ministry 
of Health.  Kuwaiti citizens receive medical services at government 
clinics and hospitals free of charge.  Public healthcare is 
maintained by a network of primary and secondary health centers and 
specialized hospitals and research institutions.  Tertiary health 
care is provided through a number of national specialized hospitals 
and clinics working in areas such as obstetrics, pulmonary ailments, 
psychiatry, neurosurgery, burns, allergies, cancer diagnosis and 
treatment, hearing impairments, transplants, and physical therapy. 
Kuwaitis suffer from a high rate of diabetes, and the Dasman 
Diabetes Center was recently established for research and 
treatment. 
 
Breast Cancer 
------------- 
 
¶11.  (U) Breast cancer in Kuwait has not received the same degree of 
attention as it has in the West.  According to Kuwait's leading 
breast cancer specialist, Dr. Nouralhuda Karmani, the focus has been 
on treatment and late treatment.  Dr. Karmani is trying to set up a 
specialized breast cancer treatment center in Kuwait that will focus 
on awareness and prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and psychological 
support.  She expressed optimism that the center will open its doors 
in the near future.  The NGO community has also been active to some 
degree.  For the past five years, the Women's Social and Cultural 
Society has run informational campaigns to raise breast-cancer 
awareness.  This year the campaign received support from a number of 
private companies and included lectures in schools, the distribution 
of brochures in public places, and awareness messages sent by SMS 
text messages. 
 
Equate Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶12. (U) Equate Petrochemical Company, a highly successful 
petrochemical joint venture between U.S.-based Dow Chemical and 
Kuwait-owned Petrochemical Industries Company, organized a 
successful breast cancer awareness campaign in May.  The campaign 
organized seminars at more than 17 schools and provided more than 
4,000 high school students with training and information on 
detecting and fighting breast cancer. As part of the campaign a 
seven-member team of specialized doctors provided free examinations 
to hundreds of women in shopping malls and trained them to perform 
self-exams to diagnose the disease in its early stages.  The program 
served as an excellent example of the leadership that American 
companies can provide in terms of corporate social responsibility, 
which is a relatively new concept for most Kuwaiti companies. 
 
 
MISENHEIMER