| Around 500 Kuwaiti activists, mostly women, demonstrated outside parliament on Monday to demand female suffrage amidst tensions in the Gulf Arab state over a government drive to grant women political rights. “Women’s rights now,” chanted the crowd, which included women dressed in abayas, or traditional long black cloaks. Some of the demonstrators wore veils over their faces. “Our democracy will only be complete with women,” said a placard written in Arabic. “We are not less, you are not more. We need a balance, open the door,” said one written in English. The crowd later attended a parliamentary session which approved a state request for a committee to speed up reviewing a bill allowing women to vote and run for parliament. “In all Muslim countries from Indonesia to Morocco, voting and running for office are among women’s rights but we in Kuwait alone say ‘No’ ... Is it possible that 1 billion Muslims are wrong and we in Kuwait are right,” lawmaker Mohammed al-Saqr said to applause from female activists in the public gallery. reuters |
