Those Kuwaiti women kick ass. Their demonstration now is being dubbed the Blue Revolution. They want their rights and they want them now. Good for them. Around 500 women demonstrated yesterday in front of parliament, demanding MPs pass legislation giving them the right to vote. If you care to hear my humble opinion, I’d say this is yet another sign of the winds of change blowing through the Middle East.
It seems to be a domino effect ladies and gentleman. It began with Iraqis defying the “You vote, you die” challenge put before them. Then it was the Egyptians shouting "Kifayeh," or enough, to the rule of Mubarak, which prompted an amendment to their constitution. Then the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon (also being called the ‘Enough’ Revoltuion) that prompted the government to step down and now this! This is making me hopeful.
I hope this will encourage Jordanian women activists to demonstrate, yet again, regarding the honor crimes issue, which, sadly enough, is condoned by some Jordanian MPs.
These pictures enlarge on click. More images from the demonstration can be found here and here.
Via: [Or Does It Explode]
Its nice how all these ‘revolutions’ have unique names now. The funniest by far is ‘Gucci’ revolution (also the most ridiculous. The Lebanese opposition should be ashamed of this)
great story. my fingers are crossed that this will mobilize more women around the ME to demand their rights. it’s time for arab women to stand their ground and say, “enough is enough”
Kuwaiti women, of course, have been fighting for the vote for ages, but with little international attention. but i agree that the Iraqi election and other recent events have probably encouraged these amazing women even more.
the times, they are a changin’…
Farooha,
Thank you for sharing this with us. I’m really sorry about the situation of women in your country, but I’m hopeful that things will improve. I can foresee positive change happening in the Arab World. Let’s just wait and see. Things are bound to improve. As for driving, trust me you don’t need it he hehe. I hate driving and I leave this to my husband. It feels good to be driven around, trust me. But I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. Stay hopeful.
I thought they had started to give driver’s license to women now? Or wait, that was the ID. Too bad the Hashemite didn’t hold there.
*sigh*
Those Kuwaiti women don’t know how good they have it.
You know, I’m not really an advocate of a “Saudi” democracy.(although I would really like it if they changed the name. It bugs me how I feel owned by a certain fam)
Anyhow, at certain times and to certain mentalities, moderate dictatorships are needed. Yes, that’s right.
If it were according to the Saudi people’s fancy, a lot of new-wave technologies, including the internet, camera-phones, and many, many more would’ve been banned still, ps. they once were. Also, remember the 50’s? When King Faisal [May his soul rest in Peace] announced that females should be educated as well as males. The people were enraged. All around Najd people protested. Thank GOD no one listened to them.
So, no I don’t need another electoral flop [ like last month’s municipal votes, here in KSA] to determine what our land needs.
But I do know what it severely lacks.
A woman’s right to drive.
I stand to this day, awaiting a convincing argument. One that would seriously silence me. One that would shut me up for the ignorant female that I am.
Unfortunately.. it still hasn’t come around.
(I apologize, Natasha, emotions kinda ran high here)
And not a sound out of Glenn Reynolds as of yet. It’s gotten to ‘ugly’ for him to bear!
The revolution was co-opted! 😉 I think that’s really part of the problem. The West, aka GWB et al, felt the need to score some points and say “look what we started.” After all the bad press they’ve been dying to find something they can call productive. That was a mistake on their part, whether it is true or not (and that’s debatable). Putting their stamp of approval on it only gave license to the opposition to say “This is your revolution, approved and encouraged by the likes of GWB!?!?”
At this point though, I can only hope that such a large pro-Syria turnout doesn’t spark violence with their foes. That’s all they need. Hopefully Nasser Allah is smart enough not to push things to conflict.
Well, so much for the ‘revolution’! Where’s the Gucci crowd now? The funny thing is that FoxNews is having a much more balanced coverage of the events (at least on their website) without much of the sensasionalism that has gripped everyone. They did much better on the Italian agent killing as well INMO.
I prefer the term “Kick butt” rather than the current title.
Is it me or has anyone else also had it to up there with the media calling every silly little civil unrest a this-and-that revolution? I mean really, there was one Velvet Revolution that became synonymous with non-violent uprisings, and that should be about it. What is it and packaging for you people? Incidentally It so reeks of the Bush admin propaganda campaign. Venezuelans rose for Chavez not long ago, did that also get a nice little convenient tag line? Nothing negative on the Kuwaiti women btw, all five hundred of them.