As Kuwait goes to the polls, its women go to the barricades Most of the 400 Islamic suffragettes attending the first election rally in Kuwait to be addressed by women were undeterred as an explosion rent the night air, sending many white-robed men ducking for cover.
"Even if some of us die, we will fight to get the vote," shouted a young teacher in a black abbaya (gown) who grabbed a microphone. "Whatever happens, I am going to try to vote on October 5."
The women, many of them dressed in chic western fashions, had already ignored a barrier separating them from male voters, some of whom looked on in horror.
Steeled by their crucial role in the seven-month resistance against Iraq, Kuwaiti women have been fighting a spirited campaign against the refusal of the ruling Al-Sabah family to allow them to participate in today's poll, the first since parliament was dissolved in 1986.
They have already secured the backing of Lawrence Eagleburger, the acting American secretary of state, who has voiced Washington's exasperation that the allied liberation of Kuwait by a coalition in which women played an important role did help secure the emirates' women the vote.
Fundamentalists have vowed violent opposition to the women, who, if they succeed in pushing their demand for the franchise through the new 50-seat parliament, would be alone among their sisters in the Gulf Arab states. They argue that even in revolutionary Iran women have the right to vote and to be elected.
As well as angering the Americans and the British, the emir's decision to snub Kuwaiti women lacks popular support. An opinion poll in Kuwait's Arab Times found that 57 per cent of Kuwaiti men favoured women being granted the vote and 85 per cent of women wanted it. Many male voters admit shame over the ban after the bravery shown by women during the occupation. Thousands of women were tortured and raped but they still smuggled weapons and codes and ran secret hospitals in cellars.
The campaign for women's votes began last spring when registration for today's vote opened. The emir, under strong pressure to resist the campaign from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, where women may not even drive, has tried to avoid making concessions. But he has been forced to admit that the issue may come before the new parliament and if a majority should vote in favour, Western diplomats believe he will have to give in.
The women are headed by a formidable Arab Emmeline Pankhurst, Mrs Altat Al-Sultan, mother of five children, grandmother, prominent clinical psychiatrist and member of one of the emirate's leading families. Like other women present she did not flinch at the blast - apparently from a home-made device.
"What is humiliating is that I am treated as a second class citizen," she said. "After what women went through in the war and occupation many are no longer willing to tolerate such a scandal."
Although the campaign has distant echoes of the one that eventually won British women the vote, it is more discreet. The well-heeled women of Kuwait have mounted protests outside electoral offices in fleets of Mercedes and BMWs.
One was led by Lulwa Al-Mullah, a doctor of philosophy and successful estate agent. "At the last election, (in 1985) we had to sit outside the election tents and listen to the speeches on our FM radios. This time we are insisting that we are going to play a part," she said.
Kuwaiti women, long-noted for their business and administrative acumen, are not totally oppressed although they find it difficult to secure accommodation if they are single or married to foreigners. They are permitted to drive, to own businesses and to hold lesser ranks in government ministries. They can choose whether or not to wear the Islamic veil. They also have equal education opportunities and their exam results consistently show them more able than Kuwaiti men, who are widely regarded in the Arab world as both lazy and pampered.
"Many of our men are cowards who ran away during the invasion and even our government sat it out in the luxury of a Saudi hotel while we were here doing our best to fight for Kuwait," said another woman, who asked not to be identified.
Seeing me taking notes a nearby woman attending the historic rally remarked acidly: "Did you Westerners liberate all of Kuwait, or just its menfolk?"
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