Posts filed under ‘Kuwait’
Eye on 2007: Kuwait’s women prepare for their first election
This essay originally appeared online at The Weekly Standard.
ON JUNE 29, in its comfortable Watergate suite, the Kuwait Information Office hosted a lunch in honor of its National Assembly’s historic May 16 decision to grant women the right to vote and run for office. Granted, the very idea of a government ministry devoted to the regulation and dissemination of information evokes the specter of censorship and repression. But this Information Office is different. It has a track record of publicizing the views of critics of the country who seek greater freedom and more democracy. (more…)
They’ve Kuwaited Long Enough
This essay originally appeared online at The Weekly Standard.
On Monday morning, May 2, the National Assembly of Kuwait, to the disappointment of the royal-family led government, refused to take the final step necessary to give women the right to vote in municipal elections. This calls into doubt the present parliament’s capacity to grant women the right to vote for, or serve in, the National Assembly itself–a right the government has for several years been supporting without finding a majority of legislators to join it. (more…)
An Oasis: Kuwaiti Women Make Progress
This essay originally appeared on NRO.
KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT — On January 15, Kuwait’s new ambassador to the United Nations presented the country’s obligatory report to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The moment captured a paradox in modern Kuwaiti life. On the one hand, the report portrayed a country with plenty of room for improvement: Most notably, Kuwaiti women still lack the right to vote or to run for office. On the other hand, the person the government of Kuwait appointed to issue the report was Naeela Al-Mulla, the first Arab-Muslim woman representing any country as an ambassador to the U.N. (more…)
The Liberal Arts in Kuwait
This essay originally appeared online at The Weekly Standard.
Kuwait City, Kuwait
AS HE ESCORTS ME around the new American University of Kuwait, which is scheduled to open its doors in September 2004 and is located in an upscale neighborhood just two blocks from what is here called the Arabian Gulf, Dr. Shafeeq Ghabra, the university’s founding president, smiles proudly and a bit mischievously. (more…)
Democracy in Kuwait
This essay originally appeared online at The Weekly Standard.
Kuwait City
IN THE MID-1990s, the renowned political scientist Samuel Huntington provoked a worldwide debate with his thesis that foreign affairs would no longer be defined by war between nations but by the clash of civilizations. The experience of Kuwait, our small but indispensable ally in the Persian Gulf, suggests that we must stay attuned as well to the clash of civilizations within nations. (more…)
