Issurdatt, who holds a degree in Race, Ethnic, & Gender Studies from Trinity College, Dublin, surveyed young female university students in Kuwait in order to discover what most concerns these young women in that Gulf Arab society.
Issurdatt notes that many of those women interviewed had been too young to vote in 2006, the summer women voted in elections for the first time in Kuwait's history. However, since these young Kuwaiti women are eligible and interested in politics, their opinions & responses are worth considering as one looks at the Gulf Arab populations today.
Similar to women's historical experience in the United States, one of these Kuwaiti women's greatest complaints was in the area of society which most any legislature in the world would have great difficulty in legislating.
This is the area of labeling or stereotyping.
For example, Issurdatte writes concerning these women in the survey: "Many demanded the right to work in any field, even those that are traditionally male (including running for public office) without being labeled a bad or immoral woman."
Issurdatte explains, "As these young women discussed and disagreed with each other, it was evident that the most important thing was to be able to live their lives without judgment."
Issurdatte's analysis makes clear the linkage in experiences with "the glass ceilings" faced by women today in the Arab world to those "glass ceilings" found by women in most any country in the world historically, i.e. this current issue is not particularly to the Arab women's struggle.
For example, in Japan, where there exist hundreds of university's, there is only one university run by a female president.
In her BBC interview, Sandra Day O'Conner had indicated that women in America today still are frustrated in gaining key posts and promotions.
For example, O'Conner noted that to her chagrin, no qualified American women was nominated to replace her as U.S. Supreme Court justice. (O'Conner clarified that many women candidates would have been equally qualified to fill one of the two seats opened on the Supreme Court during George W. Bush's tenure in Washington, D.C.)
On the other hand, Ms. Issurdatte's survey does clearly elucidate other women's issues and concerns which seem to be peculiar to parochial Arab states today.
For example, a primary concern of young Kuwaiti women today has to do with the inequality found in the Kuwaiti legal code, especially concerning a woman's own right to her own children following a divorce.
Issurdatte clarifies, "With divorce rates in Kuwait some of the highest in the Arab world, this issue was the main concern for many of the young women polled." This is why "many advocate an overhaul of Kuwait's divorce laws, which are biased towards men."
The inability of Kuwaiti women under the current legal code to pass on Kuwaiti citizenship to their own children when married to a foreigner is a second major point of concern related to family and citizenship laws that adversely affect women.
A Kuwaiti male can marry an American, European or Asian and his children will be eligible for citizenship. That child will have rights to a welfare state that provides millions of dollars of assistance to the Kuwaiti child-including nearly $250,000 for his or her first home.
In contrast, if a Kuwaiti female marries, for example, a Saudi or Bahraini, her children have no such access to citizenship nor citizenship benefits.
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