Rights for Women

Today marks an important day in history! Today the women of Kuwait were granted the right to vote. The right to vote seems to be a vote that many women and men take for granted in the untied states. Although the figures are very hard to comprehend...the US census bureau states that 60 % of eligible voters turned out to vote in 2000 but it is confusing as how to ascertain whether this is all eleigible registered voters or citizens or what...I have seen numbers as low as 35% of eleigible voters vote in the US.

In any case, voting in s right which must be taken as a civic duty and thought of as something that you do not want to lose and hope others can have, lest we revert to a more backwards age where life is even more problematic. I know the 2000 election was difficult to watch and/or take part in but that does not mean that you do not vote...in fact it shows the importance of voting AND of making sure your vote is atually counted.

But back to today being a day in to mark in the history books...
Looking back the history of suffrage is really rather new (if you look at the big picture) because for a long ime women were kept shelter away from politics...not a women's place (and in fact women were usually forbidden by law from voting). Then in 1869 Britain granted the right to unmarried women who were householders in local election and from then on out suffrage has slowly trickled into existence. In 1920, the US adopted the 19th amendment and granted all US women the right to vote. In 1994, Black women in South Africa were given the right to vote. And today the women of Kuwait are given the right to vote after baby steps taken over years and years by couragous women and men since the late 1800's (sometimes tied to the Seneca Falls Convention in the US).

Today there was much to celebrate about outside of Parliment for many people. The vote went like this: Thirty-five voted in favour, 23 against and one abstained in a vote that had met fierce resistance from Islamists and conservative tribal MPs. Women's right to vote has passed at too late of a date for the June elections due to the delay (the wrench thrown in by opposition) earlier this month; however, we should rejoice that in the ability to take part in the shaping of the future of their country and even being elected to the cabinet (which Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said is now possible).