Get Your Vote On Sister

Just two weeks after conservative lawmakers in the Kuwaiti Parliament had thwarted a measure that aimed to grant women the right to vote and contest city council elections, the parliament reversed itself on Monday, making way for women to vote and run for office in parliamentary and local elections for the first time in the country's history. The Kuwaiti prime minister, Sheik Sabah al-Jaber al-Sabah, is believed to have forced the measure through the parliament ahead of a planned visit to Washington.

However, because the legislation was passed too late for Kuwaiti women to run in the council elections next month, the soonest they will be able to run in any election is 2007, when parliamentary elections are scheduled. But, it is expected that the Prime minister will appoint a woman minister of Health in the near term.

Better late than never.