NAD Regional News Week May 26-June 1 \ Issue Focus: Gender\Women a newsletter that covers current Arab issues and press news on development and gender. CONTINENTS 1- OMAN: revises procedures to make Shura vote fairer 2- KUWAIT: Women score victory in rights battle 3- SAUDI: Women to attend council meet for second time 4- DUBAI: Women hit the road as taxi drivers 5- SUDAN: Hundreds of woman inmates released * * * 1- OMAN: revises procedures to make Shura vote fairer Some 175,000 people, 25 percent of Omanis over the age of 21, will be able to vote for the new Shura Council. May 29, 2000 Arabia on Line MUSCAT (Reuters) - Oman has revised some aspects of the way its consultative Shura Council is chosen in a bid to ensure that elections in July are fairer than before, officials said on Monday. Some 175,000 people, 25 percent of Omanis over the age of 21, will be able to vote for the new Shura Council, which has only consultative powers and no say in foreign, defence and security policy. "The procedures regulating the nomination and voting process have been carefully revised to overcome irregularities of the past (elections)," the Arabic-language Oman daily quoted Interior Minister Ali bin Hamoud bin Ali al-Bousaidi as saying, though he did not elaborate. A ministry official told Reuters one of the changes was that candidates would register directly with provincial governors, instead of with tribal leaders. "In previous elections, candidates were reluctant to register their names with the tribal leaders and that limited the voters` options," he said. Oman is one of the few stat! ! es to hold elections in the conservative Gulf Arab region ruled by monarchies. Elders, prominent businessmen and intellectuals from Oman's 59 provinces have been selected to choose members for the 82-seat assembly, which has a three-year term. Sultan Qaboos has the final say in picking council members after the vote. The interior ministry official said more than 600 nominees had registered for the polls, including about 36 women, and final figures would be announced soon. There were 736 nominees at the last election, including 27 women. © 2000 Reuters ******************************************** 2- KUWAIT: Women score victory in rights battle An activist won permission to take her fight for the right to vote and stand for election to the Constitutional Court. May 29, 2000, 01:47 PM KUWAIT CITY (Reuters) - Kuwaiti women celebrated a victory in their 40-year battle for political equality on Monday when an activist won permission to take her fight for the right to vote and stand for election to the Constitutional Court. "This is a great victory...This is what we wanted," said Rola Dashti, who jumped for joy when her lawyer told her that the Kuwaiti Administrative Court had accepted her argument. It referred her petition to the Constitutional Court to decide on whether election laws, which ban female participation, violate the constitution. Individuals cannot file a case directly to the Constitutional Court. "All we wanted was just one case to make it through and we have that," said lawyer and female activist Kawther al-Joua'n. Minutes earlier, she had expressed disappointment and vowed to appeal after another court rejected similar cases on the grounds of procedural errors. It did not pass judgment on the petitions' contents. The legal decisions come one ye! ! ar after Kuwait's ruler, Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, issued a groundbreaking decree granting women the right to vote and stand in elections in 2003. But after all-male elections in July, Kuwait's parliament rejected the decree in November. Later the same month it defeated a similar draft law presented by MPs by just two votes. Kuwait's traditionalist tribal politicians and well- organised, influential Sunni Muslim political groupings are vociferously against granting women political rights. Support from leadership Sheikh Jaber received a delegation of Kuwaiti women earlier this month on the anniversary of his decree. They thanked him for his reform bid, which at the time triggered bitter debate. This month, the country's leaders voiced fresh support for women's political rights, although some activists have accused the government of failing to back them strongly enough. Dashti said supporters of women's rights would present a new draft law to parliament in a fresh bid! ! to amend the election laws. "We are working on all fronts, legal October...Presenting the issue in public is now less problematic than a year ago when we had nervous responses. Women will eventually get their rights and will vote in 2003," said an optimistic Dashti. Kuwaiti women are seen as the most liberated in the Gulf Arab region. They head diplomatic missions, run businesses, hold senior posts and help steer the OPEC member's vital oil sector. © 2000 Reuters **************************************** 3- SAUDI: Women to attend council meet for second time The assembly would continue to invite women to attend sessions that pertained to women's affairs. May 29, 2000 Arabia on Line Riyadh (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian women will attend a session of the Shura consultative council on Tuesday for the second time in this conservative Muslim kingdom, council officials said on Monday. They said the women, including some female members of the Saudi royal family, journalists, writers and academics, would be segregated from the men and watch proceedings from a balcony overlooking the council chamber. The Saudi-owned pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily said 60 women would attend the session, which will discuss high marriage costs. Saudi Arabia, which bars women from public life, last year allowed women to attend a council session for the first time, raising hopes of a possible change in attitudes towards women. But the council's head Sheikh Mohammad Ibrahim bin Jubair said later the kingdom had no immediate plans to let women serve on the council due to religious and social norms. He said the assembly would continue to invite women to attend sessions that pertained to women's aff! ! airs. It had no plans to discuss allowing women to drive, a key demand by some women activists. Women in Saudi Arabia need written permission from a male relative to travel. But a growing number work in banks, the public sector, education and private companies. © 2000 Reuters **************************************************** 4- DUBAI: Women hit the road as taxi drivers The service answers demand from Gulf women who do not always feel confident with male taxi drivers. May 28, 2000 Arabia on Line DUBAI (AFP English) - Seven Arab women will blaze a trail in the emirate of Dubai from Thursday when they become the first women taxi drivers across the Muslim Arab Gulf. They will only take female and children passengers, but the press in the liberal trading and tourist hub have greeted the move as a breakthrough. In neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which enforces a strict interpretation of Islam, women are not allowed to drive at all. "There was quite a lot of opposition from my brothers and senior family members," Abla Hussein told Sunday's Gulf News. "But I feel that opting for a driver's job does not mean that I am going against my traditions," she said. The seven, who will wear long skirts and black head scarves in line with local custom, will be joined by 23 more women if the project proves a success, according to Dubai Transport Corporation. "We have undergone rigorous training for three months, including how to deal with passengers and their attitudes," Sudanese national Eh! ! asan Hassan told the daily. "If we fail there is always the option to quit and go back to the sheltered life," she admitted. The new recruits, who will not work overnight, will be monitored by a woman police inspector. The Transport Corporation said the service answers demand from Gulf women who do not always feel confident with male taxi drivers. © 2000 AFP *************************************************************************************** 5- SUDAN: Hundreds of woman inmates released Some 389 women serving terms in provincial prisons have been set free in the last few days. May 31, 2000 Arabia on Line KHARTOUM (AFP English) - Some 389 women serving terms in provincial prisons have been set free in the last few days following a presidential decree pardoning women jailed for public order offenses, the Prisons Administration said Tuesday. Another 563 woman inmates were released earlier this month from the Omdurman women's prison in the Sudanese capital. The decree has provided that all women jailed for public order offenses, that include liquor trafficking, drinking and misbehaving, be set free. The Public Order Law, introduced some five years ago, has been an object of bitter criticism by the public, opposition and human rights activists. The latest criticism of the Public Order Law came Tuesday from the pro-government Bar Association which has demanded its abrogation and the dismantling of its enforcement bodies. The Association, which groups lawyers loyal to the government, said in a press statement that the special policemen charged with enforcing the Law violated human ri! ! ghts and personal freedoms by indiscreetly rounding up people for summary trial and denying them the right to defence and appeal. The Bar Association has called upon the head of state to order the abrogation of the Law, the Interior Minister to place its policemen alongside the main police force, the Justice Minister to disband the Public Order prosecution offices and the Chief Justice to dismantle its special tribunals.© 2000 AFP ____________________________________________________________________________ NAD Regional News: a newsletter that covers current Arab issues and press news on development and gender. To subscribe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For info on NAD write to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
