Islamists' drive to woo women voters criticised

Kuwaiti liberals and women's rights activists slammed Islamists' campaign to attract women voters for the next parliamentary elections saying the members of the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) were the main hurdle in the way of women achieving political rights.

The change in attitude by Islamists is a political ploy and they will not be able to draw reasonable number of female votes in these changing circumstances, said a prominent scholar and women's rights activists.

Dr Badria Al Awadi, Professor of International Law at the Kuwait University told the daily Al Watan yesterday that Kuwaiti women are well aware of the fact that ICM never supported women's rights and only played political games in order to achieve their goals.

Islamists' campaign for women's votes launched this week has sparked a political debate in Kuwait over whether Islamists will allow their female followers to run for parliamentary seats.

"The change in attitude of Islamists shows, to what extent they can go to achieve their personal goals. They will try to create hurdles for women to bar them from exercising full political rights," she added.

"These groups are unfortunately considered as well organised as compared to the liberals and they will not hesitate to spread negative aspects but their propaganda tactics are destined to fail this time because circumstances have entirely changed," Al Awadi said.

She said although she does not expect large female presence on the floor of the parliament, but whoever reaches there, will be liberal, progressive and moderate. Islamists will most likely bar their female followers to run as candidates.

"The Shiite bloc will support five females for parliamentary seats, in contrast with other Islamic groups, but personally, I support the presence of women in parliament regardless of their sectarian affiliations," she said.

Regarding the issue of prescribed quota for women in parliament, Dr Al Awadi said that quota system in parliaments in Arab world has proved its limited effectiveness, in the sense that it has broken some barriers for women to participate in political process.

"But even with this situation prevailing in some countries the fact remains that women's presence in Arab parliaments remains weak," she added.

She said our main cause of concern was not large women presence in parliament but our major concern is those MPs who are indifferent to the issue, Kuwaiti women are facing.

"There should not be more than five women MPs in next parliament, but their higher standards in education and their effective participation in the workforce should definitely promote their cause in and outside the parliament," Dr Al Awadi concluded.

The writer is a journalist based in Kuwait