Kuwait

Health minister Maasuma Al Mubarak, Kuwait's first female cabinet member, has resigned following a deadly hospital fire, preempting plans by Islamist MPs to call her to account in parliament.
To read the full article, please visit the Middle East Times' Website.

Hundreds of female supporters applauded and ululated from the galleries as parliament voted 27-19, with two abstentions, against the impeachment of Education Minister Nouria al-Subeih, a pioneer in this small oil-rich Gulf state where women were only allowed to participate in political life in 2005.
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None of 27 female candidates who contested the previous general elections in June 2006 was successful, but a number did make an unexpectedly strong showing despite having little time to prepare for the polls.
To read the full article, please visit the Gulf in the Media's Website.

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.
To read the full article, please visit the ADN Kronos Website.

Amongst the explicit and subtle contradictions of a social fabric which remains conservative and extremely cautious to maintain the separation of the sexes, women in Kuwait have won their latest battle in the war for professional equality: the first 16 female cadets from the Saad Abdullah Police academy have graduated as police officers, and taken part with heads held high in the graduation parade in front of the Emir Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah.
To read the full article, please visit Ansa Med's Website.

Zikra Al-Rasheedi, a fourth constituency candidate inaugurated her campaign headquarters on Monday evening. She places top priority to the cause of women's rights. Al-Rasheedi dedicated most of her speech to the problems that plague Kuwait women like citizenship for children whose fathers are non-Kuwaitis or bedoon, in addition to improving the social situation and women's rights.
To read the full article, please visit the Kuwait Times Website.

Kuwaiti satellite channels have proven quite effective in advertising candidates' campaigns and agendas to a large segment of the Kuwaiti society, but this is at expense of turn-up at the electoral rallies. Media technological development played a major role, nowadays, in reaching out to a large segment of the public, whereas in the past, many candidates had to exert great personal efforts and hold direct contacts to host seminars and discussions to display their campaigns.

Women in the conservative Gulf state of Kuwait aim to make it third time lucky as they contest seats in parliament after two failed attempts in legislative elections.
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Academics agreed that the relative drop in performance of the former all-male parliament was likely to boost the chances of female candidates getting elected, found a study conducted by KUNA.Kuwait University's political science professor Dr. Abdulredha Asiri told KUNA that he expects many more males will be voting for women in this election round, and their choices will likely be more rational and realistic than before.
To view the full article, please visit the Kuwait Times website.