Kuwaiti women achieved another historical milestone Sunday by winning their first ever seats in the Gulf state's parliament, with four women elected according to official results. Voters also rejected Islamic groups. “It's a victory for Kuwaiti women and a victory for Kuwaiti democracy,” said a jubilant Aseel Al-Awadhi, one of the four women elected to parliament. “This is a major leap forward,” said the 40-year-old professor of political philosophy at Kuwait University who earned her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. Awadhi placed second in the third district, where Rula Dashti was also elected in seventh place. The top 10 finishers in each of the five electoral districts win seats in the 50-seat parliament. Massuma Al-Mubarak and Salwa Al-Jassar, both holders of doctorate degrees from the United States, were also declared winners. Mubarak topped the 10 winners in her district while Jassar came in last place in another district. Kuwaiti women, who make up 54.3 percent of the 385,000 eligible voters, were running in the elections for only the third time after they were enfranchised in 2005, but no women won seats in the previous two elections. Sixteen women were among the 210 candidates who ran for the parliament's 50 seats. “This proves there is nothing impossible. It's a victory for Kuwaitis and their will for change,” said Mubarak, a liberal woman activist who become the first Kuwaiti woman minister in 2005. At present, there are two women ministers in the 16-member cabinet. In addition to making up more than half of the electorate, women also form more than 44 percent of the Kuwaiti workforce, the largest percentage in the Arab states of the Gulf. The two mainstream Sunni groups, the Islamic Salafi Alliance and the Islamic Constitutional Movement, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, were dealt a heavy blow, winning just three seats versus seven they held in the previous parliament. Their tribal Islamist supporters were also reduced from 14 to just eight seats. And instead of winning first positions like they did last year, several of them came in last place. Liberals and their allies improved their tally by one seat to eight.
