Does the attainment of womens suffrage reflect larger trends in the role of women in Kuwait society?
I wouldn’t say so. Kuwait has always been a little bit odd this way. Some elements of society are gravitating toward the conservative end of the spectrum, looking like the most conservative parts of Saudi Arabia, and other parts are looking like some of the more secular parts of the Arab world, like Beirut. So while I’m not sure this represents a really big shift in that way, it does represent a triumph on this major issue [by] women’s-rights advocates. In the last election, liberal and reformist candidates faired relatively poorly, dropping from 14 to three seats. Will the participation of women reverse this trend? No, I don’t think so. We don’t have great indications of voting results, but to the extent that we do, women will vote similarly to men, and on some issues, might be even more conservative than men. Kuwait has really small electoral districts, which means that politics is really retail in Kuwait. So a lot of the issues will be neighborhood issues—who sticks up best for this
