Kuwaiti women

Kuwaiti women

Kuwaiti women.
Gender Inequality Index
Value	0.274 (2012)
Rank	47th
Maternal mortality (per 100,000)	14 (2010)
Women in parliament	7.7% (2012)
Women in labour force	47% (2012)[1]
Global Gender Gap Index[2]
Value	0.6292 (2013)
Rank	116th out of 136

Women in Kuwait are among the most emancipated women in the Middle East region. In 2014, Kuwait was ranked first among Arab countries in the Global Gender Gap Report.^[3][4] In 2013, 53% of Kuwaiti women participated in the labor force.^[5]

Women in Kuwait have experienced many changes since the discovery of oil. They have a long history of official political and social activism which started in the 1960s and continues today. In the 1950s their access to education and employment increased dramatically.

Women in the pre-oil era

From the 17th century until the discovery of oil in the 1950s, the economy of Kuwait was largely dependent on maritime trade. While men were seafaring, Kuwait’s women managed their homes, and controlled family affairs and finances. For those families that could afford it, houses were built with a courtyard and a harem where women spent most of their time. This structure, along with high windows and doors that faced into the house rather than the street, removed women from public vision. Urban, upper-class women’s participation in the public sphere was limited.^[6] However, women from less fortunate circumstances had a much less secluded experience; they went to the suq on a daily basis, fetched drinking water and washed their families’ clothes on the beach.^[7] Kuwaiti girls began learning scripture in 1916 when the first Quran school was established. After this many women of modest means began working as religious instructors. The first private school opened in 1926; it taught reading, writing, and embroidery. Public schooling began in 1937 though enrollment in it was low for some time; however, by the 1940s many young Kuwaiti women were enrolled in primary school. It was often women themselves who pushed for these educational advances and opportunities and in 1956 a group of young women burned their abayyas to protest their right to go abroad to study.

Employment

In 2013, 53% of Kuwaiti women participated in the labor force.^[5] Kuwait's labor force participation rate for Kuwaiti women is much higher than the MENA average.^[5] 46.7% of Kuwaiti women between the ages of 15 and 64 were employed in 2013.^[8]

The participation of Kuwaiti women in the labor force is much higher than the regional GCC average, Kuwait has the highest percentage of working female citizens in the GCC.^[9]

Political participation

The women's suffrage campaign started in 1971 when a group led by Noureya Al-Saddani took a proposal to parliament to grant women political rights. The proposal was rejected. In the early 1990s, women campaigned heavily for the vote; they held protests outside of election headquarters and between 2000 and 2005 a number of women filed court cases against the Minister of Interior for his refusal to include women in election tables.^[10] In 2004 women demonstrated inside the parliament hall for the vote, and a year later they held one of the largest demonstrations in Kuwait’s history.^[11]

In 1999, the Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah promulgated a decree granting women suffrage after the parliament was dissolved, however, it was overturned by the new parliament just months later by two-votes difference.^[12] Kuwaiti women were granted the right to vote in May 2005.^[13] Women voted for the first time in June 2006, and in these elections 28 women ran out of a pool of 250 candidates though none won.^[14] Almost exactly four years after women were given full political rights, four were elected into parliament for the first time. The winners in the 2009 elections were: Massouma Al Mubarak (the first Kuwaiti woman appointed to the cabinet), Aseel Al Awadhi, Rola Dashti, and Salwa Al Jassar.^[15] In 2011, Kuwait was ranked highest of all Arab countries in gender equality in the Human Development Report's Gender Inequality Index.^[16]

Organizations and activism

Women’s activism in Kuwait began in the 1950s. The first women’s organization, the Arab Women’s Renaissance Association (later changed to the Family Renaissance Association), was established by Noureya Al-Saddani in 1962 and was soon followed by the Women’s Cultural and Social Society in February 1963. The Girls Club (Nadi Alfatat) was established in 1975, its initial focus was on women in sport. In 1981 Bayader As-Salam, a religious group whose objective was cultural awareness, was formed. The same year Sheikha Latifa Al-Sabah’s Islamic Care Association was established, it sought to spread Islam and an Islamic lifestyle and conduct.^[17]

Kuwaiti women played a large role in resisting the Iraqi invasion in 1990. They mobilized the opposition, started an underground resistance paper called “al-Kuwaitiya”, passed weapons and ammunition through Iraqi checkpoints, transported and planted explosives using abayas, collected and distributed food and medicine, and ran shelters for the sick and disabled. During the invasion they also organized a large demonstration in defiance of the invasion, which cost some of them their lives.^[18]

Women became active in Islamist groups in the 1980s when Islamism was on the rise in Kuwait. They became members of the Islamic Constitutional Movement and the Social Reform Society, as these groups both made moves to accommodate and include women in their activities. Women’s branches of these groups are charged with mobilizing women to vote for group candidates. They provide educational courses and training for women, as well as childcare for working mothers.^[19] Through their early activity in these groups, many women acquired organizational skills which they were able to utilize in the campaign for suffrage.^[20]

Women in the arts

Kuwait’s long tradition of artistic expression has been spearheaded and organized by women. Women’s involvement in the fine arts dates back to at least 1969 when Najat Sultan along with her brother Ghazi established the Sultan Gallery, which served as a propagator for contemporary and secular movements in Arab art. The gallery was shut after the Iraqi invasion and reopened in 2006 by Farida Sultan. It currently focuses on contemporary photography.^[21] Sheikha Hussah Al Sabah established Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah in 1983, and Dar al-Funoon gallery for contemporary art in 1992.^[22]

Contemporary artists include: Thuraya al Baqsami, who trained in Cairo and Moscow whose works can be found in museums worldwide;^[23] Shurooq Amin, whose subversive art pieces aim to challenge perceptions of society in the Gulf;^[24] Fatima Al Qadiri (member of Future Brown), an artist, musician and composer whose work is inspired by her experience in the Gulf War;^[25] and Monira Al Qadiri, whose art explores gender and religious and cultural identities.^[26]

Notable Kuwaiti women

• Noureya Al-Saddani: An author, historian, broadcaster and director, Al-Saddani started the first women’s organization in Kuwait. In 1971 she proposed to the National Assembly to grant women's political rights. During the invasion she worked in charity and mobilized the diaspora; upon her return to Kuwait she put together radio biographies of all the female martyrs in the invasion.^[27]
• Loulwa Abdulwahab Essa Al-Qatami: Al-Qatami the first woman to study abroad, she left Kuwait on 12/6/1955 for a degree in Education. Upon her return, she and a few other Kuwaiti women founded the Women's Cultural and Social Society in 1963. She and the group have been instrumentally active in advancements for women since the 1960s; they work on mobilizing women, raising awareness and philanthropy.^[28]
• Sarah Akbar: Akbar is Kuwait’s first Petroleum Engineer in the field. During the invasion, Akbar led a group of oil employees to maintain machinery and electricity and after the Iraqi troops left and set several oil fields on fire, Akbar set up a team to control and extinguish the fires, earning her the nickname “firefighter”.^[29]
• Asrar Al-Qabandi: Al-Qabandi was a martyr of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. During the occupation she helped people flee to safety, smuggled weapons and money into Kuwait as well as disks from the Ministry of Civil Information to safety, cared for many wounded by the war, and destroyed monitoring devices used by the Iraqi troops. She was captured and subsequently killed by Iraqi troops in January 1991.^[30]
• Laila al-Othman is one of Kuwait's most famous authors and columnists. She has written a number of short stories and novels and often deals with themes that challenge traditional norms. She has faced conservative resistance to her work.^[31]

Non-national women

Kuwait has a very high percentage of expatriates. Many Egyptian, Palestinian, Filipino and Southeast Asian women live in Kuwait. Palestinian women have worked in Kuwait since the 1950s, historically as teachers in girls’ schools.^[32] Nearly 90% of Kuwaiti households employ a foreigner worker, most often a South Asian woman.^[33] These women's labor is crucial to the social reproduction of Kuwait, though they occupy a marginal status and are not granted state protection or oversight.^[34] Non-Nationals are subject to residence and labor laws, which prevent them from permanently settling in Kuwait.^[35] Under the kafala system, whereby all migrants must have a citizen who sponsors their residence in Kuwait, many migrant workers cannot leave or enter the country without their employer’s permission and are often exploited.

See also

• Women's suffrage in Kuwait
• Women in Islam
• Women in Arab societies

References

1. Gender Gap Report 2012 Page 52
2. "The Global Gender Gap Report 2013" (PDF). World Economic Forum. pp. 12–13.
3. "The Global Gender Gap Index 2014 - World Economic Forum". World Economic Forum.
4. "Kuwait highest in closing gender gap: WEF".
5. "Kuwait: Selected Issues" (PDF). p. 17. Kuwait has higher female labor market participation than other GCC countries; further improvements in labor force participation can support future growth prospects. Kuwait’s labor force participation rate for Kuwaiti women (53 percent) is slightly above the world average (51 percent) and much higher than the MENA average (21 percent).
6. al-Mughni, Haya (2001). Women in Kuwait: The Politics of Gender. London: Saqi.
7. Sweet, Louise E. (1970). Camel Raiding of North Arabian Bedouin: A Mechanism of Ecological Adaptation. New York. p. 271.
8. "Kuwait on path to fulfill all MDGs by 2015 deadline" (PDF). United Nations. p. 9.
9. "Kuwait: Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix". International Monetary Fund. 2012. p. 43.
10. Haidar, Khalil Ali. "Kuwaiti women's movement and the religious current". 14 October. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
11. Shultziner, Doron; Mary Ann Tétreault (2011). "Paradoxes of Democratic Progress in Kuwait: The Case of the Kuwaiti Women’s Rights Movement". Muslim World Journal of Human Rights 7 (2): 1–25. doi:10.2202/1554-4419.1192.
12. http://alwatan.kuwait.tt/articledetails.aspx?id=434133&yearquarter=20152
13. "UN and US congratulate Kuwait over women’s right to vote". Gulf News. May 18, 2005. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
14. "Historic first time vote for Kuwaiti women". June 29, 2006. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
15. "Kuwaiti women in first-ever win of four parliamentary seats". Gulf News. May 17, 2009. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
16. "Gender inequality". fanack.com. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
17. Al-Saddani, Noureya (1982). The Arab Women’s Movement in the 20th Century 1917-1981. Kuwait.
18. Maria, Julia; Hadi Ridha (2001). "Women and War: The Role Kuwaiti Women Played During the Iraqi Occupation". Journal of International Development 13: 583–598. doi:10.1002/jid.782.
19. Hirmats, Aiko (2011). "The Changing Nature of the Parliamentary System in Kuwait: Islamists, Tribes, and Women in Recent Elections" (PDF). Kyoto Bulletin of Islamic Area Studies 4 (1&2): 62–73.
20. al-Mughni, Haya (2010). "L’Émergence du Féminisme Islamique au Koweït". Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée 128. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
21. "The Sultan Gallery". Retrieved 6 April 2014.
22. Al-Qassemi, Sultan Sooud (4 April 2013). "The Women Trailblazers of Gulf Arab Art". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
23. "Kuwaiti print maker Thuraya Al-Baqsami on identity, Kuwaiti art scene, writing". Art Radar Asia. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
24. Shurafa, Sara (4 April 2012). "Kuwaiti artist fights for freedom of expression". Gulf News. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
25. Read, Max. "Trax Read: Listen to a Full Stream of Fatima Al Qadiri's Amazing Desert Strike EP". Gawker. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
26. Al Qadiri, Monira. "About Mounira". Retrieved 6 April 2014.
27. Basha, Sadoon. "Noureya Al-Saddani". History of Kuwait. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
28. "Lulwa Al-Qitami". Peace Women Across the Globe.
29. Arabic Knowledge@Wharton. "Sara Akbar Makes a Name for Herself in the Oil Industry". University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
30. "The ‘Tomboy’ Who Took On Takrit". Arab Times. Retrieved 2014-03-15.
31. Abdallah, Mariam (2011). "Laila al-Othman: A Life of Difference and Defiance". Al-Akhbar.
32. Ghabra, Shafeeq (1987). Palestinians in Kuwait. Boulder: Westview.
33. Shah, Nasra M.; Makhdoom A. Shah; Rafiqul Islam Chowdhury; Indu Menon (2002). "Foreign domestic workers in Kuwait: Who employs how many" (PDF). Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 11 (2).
34. Ahmed, Attiya (2010). "Explanation is Not the Point: Domestic Work, Islamic Dawa and Becoming Muslim in Kuwait". The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 11 (34).
35. Longva, Anh Nga (1993). "Kuwaiti Women at a Crossroads: Privileged Development and the Constraints of Ethnic Stratification". International Journal of Middle East Studies 25 (3): 443–456. doi:10.1017/s0020743800058864.

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