Fara™was appointed minister of state for human
rights in 2001, and in Qatar Shaykha bt. A™mad al-
Ma™mùd became minister of education in 2003.
Segregation of the sexes (originating from a mix-
ture of tribal and religious traditions stylizing
women as the embodiment of cultural values and
identities) kept women out of politics, especially in
those states where there were no formal participa-
tory institutions.The seven peninsular states in
detail
In two countries in the peninsula there have not
been any elections at all: the United Arab Emirates
and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. When prepara-
tions for local elections in Saudi Arabia were
announced in October 2003, women were unlikely
to be included in the electorate. A third country, the
Emirate of Kuwait, remains the last country in the
world where the right to vote only applies to parts
of its male population (for example, citizens who
have been naturalized less than 20 years ago are
excluded). The issue of women’s votes has been
brought up by the Emir of Kuwait and women
activists several times in the past, but was blocked
by parliament. This was generally explained by the
fact that the Kuwaiti parliament was dominated by
Islamist representatives. However, efforts of the
Emir to bypass parliament on this issue made
female political participation a symbolic bone of
contention between parliament and government.
This certainly did not serve women’s interest. The
chances that women might participate in the up-
coming local elections looked promising by the end
of 2003 and this was likely to be the breakthrough
for a further broadening of female political partici-
pation in Kuwait.
While the Kingdom of Bahrain saw some kind of
local elections in the 1920s, no elections took place
on the national level until the early 1970s. From
1973 until 2002 there were no elections at all in
Bahrain. Unlike in the 1920s, when women who
could prove land ownership were allowed to vote,
they could not participate in the elections of the
1970s. In 1992 a formal petition was submitted to
the ruler demanding – among other things – a role
for women in the political process. While women
remained absent from the official scene for another
decade, they participated in demonstrations and
resistance against the regime, sometimes facing
arrest and torture. The year 2001 saw the intro-
duction of universal suffrage, and in 2002 Bahraini
women could vote and run for office in the 9 May
municipal elections for the first time. As in the 24
October 2002 parliamentary elections, however,552 political parties and participation
they did not win any seats. Women were neverthe-
less prominent members of civil society and the
business community, and some were appointed
to highly visible official positions: in 2000 King
£amad bin ≠îsàal-Khalìfa, who took over from his
father in 1999, appointed four women to the con-
sultative council, which was turned into the 40-
member second chamber of the two-chamber
parliament shortly thereafter. The first female
ambassador was appointed in 1999 and a number
of women have entered the higher echelons of the
ministries.
Elections were first introduced to the Emirate of
Qatar with local elections in March 1999. Suffrage
was universal and male and female candidates ran
for office, but none of the six female candidates was
elected. Only in the second local election on 7 April
2003 a woman won a seat – after male candidates
had withdrawn. Later that month, male and female
voters approved a constitution that codified a
woman’s right to vote and run for office and the
first woman cabinet minister was appointed in May- Elections for 30 seats in a 45-member con-
sultative council are planned for 2004.
The Sultanate of Oman held its first elections
with limited suffrage in 1991. Suffrage remained
limited – the Sultan selected those who could par-
ticipate – in the 1998 and the 2000 elections when
two women were elected to the consultative coun-
cil. Universal suffrage was only introduced in
October 2002, and on 5 October 2003 the 83-
member consultative council was elected directly
for the first time after the Sultan had given up his
right to select from among successful candidates.
The two female members of the former council
could defend their seats (both in Muscat), but no
other women was elected.
In the two predecessor states of the Republic of
Yemen female political participation was either not
regulated but de factonon-existent (in the Yemen
Arab Republic) or explicitly encouraged (in the
People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen). In May
1991 women participated in a referendum that
approved the constitution of the newly established
Republic of Yemen. Yemen’s – and the peninsula’s –
first fully-fledged multi-party parliament with uni-
versal suffrage and male and female candidates was
elected on 27 April 1993. As in the 1997 parlia-
mentary elections women won 2 out of 301 seats (in
1993 in Aden and Mukalla, in 1997 both in Aden).
On 27 April 2003 only one women was elected (in
Aden). The first female minister was appointed in
2001 to oversee the newly established ministry of
human rights. One of the major parties still refuses
to nominate female candidates in elections.