Kuwaiti women agree that they have made huge social gains in the past decade despite a weakness in political representation.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Kuwaiti women hope that they would have leadership positions in politics and there would be more equality in different sectors.
Fatima AlSalem, PhD. Assistant Professor of Journalism and New Media at Kuwait University, said that Kuwaiti women have made major leaps in gaining their rights.
“But we still hope for pushing for more rights, mainly in the job market and politics,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“Kuwaiti laws have been fair to women but the problem lies in how society views them,” she said.
Not a single woman won a seat in parliament in the elections that took place last December although several candidates had political expertise, said AlSalem.
Academic Dr. Alanoud Alsharekh said that the activism of women started in Kuwait when students who had studied abroad returned back home in the 1950s.
Like AlSalem, she lamented that Kuwaiti women don’t have strong representation in the country’s political life.
“It was a worrying sign for not a single woman to win a seat in the Kuwaiti National Assembly,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat.
The government needs to find a solution to this problem like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia did, she said.
