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KUWAIT VS. WOMEN
Women have once again formally been denied political
rights in the oil-rich statelet of Kuwait. On Nov. 30 the
Parliament voted against a bill that would have allowed
women to vote and run for office. Hundreds of men cheered
after the vote was taken.
In neighboring Iraq, women have long played a prominent
role in society. Women vote and work outside the home.
Many doctors, teachers and government workers are women.
The Western media would have us believe that the problem
in Kuwait is Islamic fundamentalism. But the people of
Iraq come from the same religious background as the
Kuwaitis. It's not religion but imperialist politics that
have reinforced extreme reaction in Kuwait.
It was the former colonial power, Britain, that divided
the area into different countries. When it set up Kuwait,
it made sure that the richest oil fields were under the
control of a feudal family, the Al-Sabah dynasty, groomed
to protect imperialist interests as well as its own. This
dynasty enshrines male domination in Kuwait even today.
But Iraq had an anti-colonial revolution in 1958 that
led to a secular state and the development of a modern
infrastructure. Iraq's refusal to knuckle under to U.S.
and British imperialism is the real reason it is under
sanctions today--sanctions that threaten to destroy the
progress Iraqi women and men have made since the
revolution.
--By Deirdre Griswold
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