Meeting looks at female role in parliamentary politics

"The time has come when Kuwaiti women are required to formulate a vision before the 2007 elections," said Kuwait's Minister of Planning and Administrative Affairs Dr Masouma Al Mubarak.

Al Mubarak was speaking along with Kim Campbell, former prime minister of Canada, at the opening of the fourth Partners in Participation Regional Women's Campaign School in Kuwait.

The four-day conference, which started on Sunday, looked at the role women play in the running of successful political campaigns.

Kuwaiti women are voting for the first time in the 2007 parliamentary elections.

"After a long struggle, Kuwaiti women have finally gained political rights, to boost their political status and give them a proportionate stand alongside their brothers in policy-making decisions," Al Mubarak said.

More than 50 women from the Middle East and North Africa had gathered for the event.

"Every Kuwaiti woman stands proudly beside her brothers in shouldering an equal right to share responsibility aimed at successful policy making," Campbell said.

Dependence should not be a means of political reform, she said.

"Don't rest your head on other people's shoulders assuming they will eventually be persuaded. You need to be strategic in setting changes that you want to be made," she said.

The conference has been organised by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in cooperation with the Kuwait Economic Society's Women's Committee, the Women's Social and Cultural Society in Kuwait and the International Republican Institute (IRI.)

Makram Ouaiss, senior representative of the NDI, said women in the Middle East and Northern Africa worked tirelessly to ensure their voices were heard.

He said the programme had proved to be a source of inspiration and support when most needed.

Among the speakers were: Samiya Moualfi MP and Central Committee Member of the National Liberation Front of Algeria, Raheela Bint Amer Al Riyami, Member of Oman's Municipal Council and Ameenah Ouchelh Member of Morocco's Parliament and President of the Women's Section of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces.

Moualfi in her speech stressed the famous proverb "one hand cannot clap".

The writer is a journalist based in Kuwait