http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=65298&d=13&m=6&y=2005&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Monday, 13, June, 2005 (06, Jumada al-Ula, 1426)
Kuwait Names Woman Minister
Associated Press
Massouma Al-Mubarak
KUWAIT CITY, 13 June 2005 - The Kuwaiti government has
appointed its first female Cabinet minister, a month after lawmakers granted
women the right to vote and run for office.
Political science teacher Massouma Al-Mubarak, a women's
rights activist and columnist, was given the planning and administrative
development portfolios, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah was
quoted as saying.
"I'm happy," al-Mubarak, 54, said. "This honor is not
bestowed on my person but on every woman who fought to prove that Kuwaiti women
are capable."
Al-Mubarak's appointment needs to be approved by Emir Sheikh
Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah and issued in a decree. That move is procedural; the
emir has been a strong proponent of women's rights.
Al-Mubarak said she needed time to study the plans at the
ministry before she speaks of her own plans.
The two portfolios she is taking were previously held by
Sheikh Ahmed Abdullah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, who is also the communications
minister.
Al-Mubarak has a Ph.D. in international relations from the
University of Denver, Colorado. She has taught political science at Kuwait
University since 1982 and writes a daily column for Al-Anba newspaper.
Her appointment became possible last month, when Parliament
passed a law allowing women to vote and run for public office for the first
time in the history of the country.
According to the 1962 constitution, Cabinet members should be
eligible to vote in parliamentary elections.
When Al-Mubarak takes up her post, she - like other Cabinet
ministers - will be able to vote in the legislature.
The move comes on the heels of a landmark decision last week
to appoint two women to Kuwait's 16-member Municipal Council, a body whose
functions are limited to monitoring civic planning, some public services and
restaurants, roads and civil construction.
The two women are Sheikha Fatima Nasser Al-Sabah, a member of
the ruling family and sister of former Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser
Al-Sabah, and Fawziya Al-Bahar, both engineers.
Kuwaiti women have reached high positions in oil, education
and the diplomatic corps, but had demanded political rights, which were opposed
by conservative and tribal lawmakers.
The Gulf states of Bahrain, Qatar and Oman all had their
first elections in recent years and have allowed women to cast ballots.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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