KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait's cabinet called on lawmakers yesterday to speed up a vote on a proposed amendment to this conservative Gulf state's election law that aims to give women the right to vote and stand as political candidates.The call was made during a parliamentary session attended by hundreds of women activists who had earlier staged a sit-in outside the legislature demanding equal voting rights for women in Kuwait, a close US ally which was until recently the Gulf region's sole democracy. Deputy Prime Minister, Shaikh Jaber Mubarak Al Hamad Al Sabah, ordered lawmakers to set a date as soon as possible to debate the amendment, which cabinet proposed last year.
At one stage, Kuwaiti women watching from the parliament's gallery broke out into applause after a lawmaker backed the amendment. But the parliament's speaker ordered them and the rest of the gallery out following the outburst.
"We are the only country in the world that has a limping democracy," activist Rania Al Saad, 30, outside the parliament building as some 700 protesters chanted "Women's rights now."