[Schwartz] M.E. - Women's suffrage in Kuwait

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Kuwait's parliament has granted full political rights to women yesterday. They can now vote and run for office in parliamentary and local elections for the first time in the country's history. Check out this BBC Online article, which notes,

The amendment [that changed the electoral laws] requires women voters and candidates to abide by Islamic law. Correspondents say this is an attempt by the ruling family to reassure Islamists. But it could also place restrictions on women campaigners.

The New York Times inappropriately states,

The surprise amendment to Kuwait's election law ends a decades-long struggle by women's rights campaigners for full suffrage...

Gotta love American "news"; who gave Manhattan the right to say this "ends" their struggle? There remain many constitutional and legal impediments to women's suffrage in Kuwait (don't forget: they are in a patriarchal emirate) and in the rest of the Persian Gulf (you don't think the Kuwaiti feminists are acting in isolation, without any regard for their sisters along the coastline, do you?), not to mention social and ideological resistance to their cause.

And as Susan B. Anthony, great American suffragist, would have said, suffrage is more than a right to vote, it's a state of mind. There's still a long journey ahead.