Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Score one for the uppity women of Kuwait...

Or at least some of them, anyways. Women candidates and MP's must still swan around swathed in a black pup tent for some reason.

MP's support unveiled women ministers.

Members of the Kuwaiti Parliament 's Sharia Issues Commission have backed a request by the country's two female ministers to appear in Parliament without the Islamic veil, Kuwaiti daily Al-Seyassah reports.Commission members on Sunday agreed that Islamic law (Sharia) only requires women candidates and MPs to wear the veil, not female ministers, according to Al-Seyassah.

On 2 June, both female ministers, Education Minister Nouria al-Sabahi and her colleague Moutha al-Mahmoud appeared bare-headed in the Parliament. Islamist MPs in the Parliament stormed out of the building in protest. Half of the MPs elected to the new Kuwaiti Parliament in last month's elections are Islamists. Women gained the vote in Kuwait in 2005. Female candidates ran, but failed to win a single seat in the 2006 and 2008 parliamentary polls. Of the country's 2.6 million people, about 360,000 people are eligible to vote. Foreigners, who form more than a third of the population, cannot vote.


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