Hifty years ago, few
Kuwaiti women received more than a basic religious education. Those from wealthy
households were confined to their courtyards, in a section of the house without windows
so their voices could not be heard from the outside. Women from more modest households
fared slightly better: some worked as midwives, marriage brokers, dressmakers and
Koranic teachers who used their homes as schools, while others were peddlers or market
traders. In public, however, all women had to cover themselves in long black cloaks
(the abbayat) and veil their faces with thick black cloths, the boshiat.
Change was prompted by Kuwait’s transformation from a small seafaring community relying
on maritime trade to a major oil producer after 1945. Such rapid economic expansion
created a demand for an educated workforce and the state made education available
to all Kuwaiti citizens. The educated woman became a symbol of modernity, an icon
of the modern state. The new generation removed the traditional black veil, enrolled
in higher education and competed with men in the labour market. By the 1990s, Kuwaiti
women made up 35 percent of the workforce, with a vast majority employed as teachers,
doctors, engineers and lawyers.
Despite these strides, Kuwaiti women continue to be legally defined as family members,
whose rights and responsibilities are circumscribed by their roles as mothers, wives
and daughters. Although the constitution does not discriminate between women and
men with respect to their citizenship rights, a number of laws passed since its adoption
are discriminatory. The 1962 Election Law, for example, restricts the right to vote
and run for office to Kuwaiti men.
After the Gulf War, the Kuwaiti women’s movement brought the voting issue to the
forefront, providing the ground for an alliance between Islamist and liberal women
activists. Suffragists invoked the heroic roles of women under Iraqi occupation,
the sacrifices of female martyrs and wartime hardships as justifications for gaining
political rights. Women inside Kuwait had participated in armed resistance and risked
their lives smuggling food, money and medicine through military checkpoints. Many
were caught, tortured, and killed.
But whatever the sacrifices made and stereotypes challenged, the all-male parliament
remained reluctant to extend to women full citizenship rights, theoretically guaranteed
by the constitution. In November 1999, an Islamist-tribalist coalition succeeded
in defeating a decree issued by Kuwait’s ruler, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, which
would have granted women the right to run for office and vote in parliamentary and
municipal elections.
Opponents appeal to narrow interpretations of religious law to justify the denial
of citizenship rights to women. But the real impetus for their actions is a deep
anxiety over a sluggish economy and changing gender roles. Climbing unemployment
among Kuwaiti youth has raised questions about male identity as a breadwinner. Masculinity
appears to be in crisis. Women are not only beginning to dominate some sectors in
the labour market, they are also moving into positions of power in government and
industry. The president of Kuwait University, the under-secretary in the ministry
of higher education, and the managing director of the oil industry are all women.
Female suffrage would not only undermine male supremacy, but also strengthen women’s
power in the public sphere. Hence, throughout the 1990s, Islamists and their Bedouin
supporters used different rationales to confine women to their traditional identities.
They blamed rising divorce rates, child delinquency and declining family values on
women’s departure from their traditional roles. This Islamist-tribalist coalition
even managed to force parliament to pass a law allowing working mothers early retirement
in an attempt to make more public-sector jobs available to Kuwaiti men.
Nevertheless, Kuwaiti women are not willing to give up their gains, nor to end their
movement for political rights. Following the defeat of the decree, female activists
filed six court cases against the ministry of interior for not allowing them to register
to vote, a move intended to force a ruling on the constitutionality of the Election
Law.
Education has changed women’s perceptions of themselves and their role in society.
Even the most ardent Islamist women activists advocate the extension of the franchise
to women and their participation in the public domain. Unlike liberal women activists
who forged alliances with men’s democratic groups, Islamist women have opted to work
from within religious movements. For almost two decades, they have played the role
of day`at (preachers), converting young women to Islam and extolling the virtues
of a moral society. They succeeded in changing Kuwaiti women and popularizing the
wearing of the Islamic veil.
Involvement in Islamist movements has actually given women new forms of power and
prominence. The idealization of the role of mothers as educators has increased their
authority in the home. At the same time, by elevating the importance of female modesty,
Islamist women have acquired a dignified and respected position in the public arena.
Empowered Islamist women activists share with their male counterparts the same dream
of achieving an Islamic society ruled by religious idioms and norms. However, their
ideal society appears to differ from the masculinist, hierarchical, ethical order
in which women are disenfranchised and confined to roles dictated by their biological
constitution. Islamist women activists are today embracing a more autonomous vision
of an Islamic society and gender roles. Working from within the religious movements
has given them the chance to engage in a dialogue over women’s rights issues and
create a new model of Muslim womanhood.
Women’s gender activism in Kuwait is as diverse as it is complex, and highlights
the ambiguity of their social status in a rapidly modernizing country. Most importantly,
it reflects the variety of women’s choices and aspirations in their struggle for
gender equity. |
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Key
figures…
Population:
2 million
Surface area: 18,000 sq. km
Female/male literacy rate: 78.5%/ 83.2%
Female/male GDP per capita: $13,347 vs $34,466
Sources:
World Bank, UNDP (1998,1999).
Kuwait
…and dates
11899:
A protectorate treaty is signed with Great Britain.
1961: Full independence achieved.
August 1990: Iraqi troops invade the country.
February 1991: US-led UN coalition forces liberate Kuwait.
1994: Iraq informs the UN that it recognizes Kuwait's sovereignty, territorial
integrity and international boundaries.
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