Global Arab Network | Kuwait votes for first female MPs

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Kuwait votes for first female MPs

Kuwait has elected its first female MPs following the oil-rich country's third general election in three years. The vote on Saturday was the third in just under three years after Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah dissolved the outgoing parliament in March following a standoff between MPs and the government.

Kuwaitis voted 21 new members into the 50-seat parliament and reduced Sunni Muslim groups to a minority as the country grappled with political turmoil that has frozen the country's economy.

Massuma al-Mubarak, one of the four women elected, was first by a large margin among the 10 top positions elected to the parliament from her district.

She also became the country's first female cabinet minister.

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra in Kuwait said: "This is definitely seen by many people as a female revolution here in Kuwait ... really a historic day.

"There is a new mindset here in Kuwait ... there is a wind of change in this country and it's definitely going to reverberate across the gulf region."

The three other women elected in the resounding victory are liberals Aseel al-Awadhi, Rola Dashti and Salwa al-Jassar, an independent.

Ten MPS are elected from each of the five districts.

"In the third constituency district, Aseer al Awadi and Rola Dashti ran against the most charismatic Islamist and Salafist, people who have dominated political life in Kuwait over the last ten years," Ahelbarra reported.

"And they got more votes."

Dashti said that their success, in spite of Kuwait's male-dominated society and cultural social barriers was a cause for celebration.

"For the last three years we've ran and to move and do this historical [achievement] without a party, without a quota, I think it is history in Kuwait," she said.

"I think it is history for women in politics all over the world."

Many voters had complained about the frozen development caused by the political gridlock.

"Men don't have credibility anymore. We're fed up with crises." Ibrahim al-Attar told AP news agency after casting his vote for four female candidates.

One of the first tasks awaiting the new parliament will be to vote on a $5bn stimulus package designed to help the financial sector of the oil-rich state cope with the global economic downturn. (Al Jazeera, bbc, AFP, AP, agencies)

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