FIRST ARAB WOMAN PARLIAMENTARIAN IN THE GULF:

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MANAMA 001887

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/17/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM KWMN BA POL REFORM
SUBJECT: FIRST ARAB WOMAN PARLIAMENTARIAN IN THE GULF:
LATIFA AL QA'OUD

Classified By: DCM Susan L. Ziadeh for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

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Summary
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1. (C) With the close of parliamentary candidate
registration October 16, Latifa Al Qa'oud became the first
woman member of an elected parliamentary body from any of the
Arab Gulf states when no other candidates registered to run
against her. Al Qa'oud is no newcomer to parliamentary
politics, having run in the 2002 elections against
independent Salafi Jasim Al Saeedi, losing to him in a second
round run-off. This time Al Qa'oud, a director of human
resources in the Ministry of Finance, changed her official
address to a different district, she says, to give a woman a
better opportunity to reach a seat in parliament. Online
bloggers poked fun at her victory that appeared to be
engineered by the government, while the reaction from women
activists was mixed. Outspoken activist Ghada Jamsheer said
she did not accept Al Qa'oud as the first woman MP because
she was not elected fairly after two presumed competitors
decided not to register as candidates. Other women activists
were more positive, welcoming Al Qa'oud's new role in
parliament and pointing out that other women will be inspired
to excel. End Summary.

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Previous Election Experience
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2. (U) Latifa Al Qa'oud became the first female member of an
elected parliamentary body from any of the Arab Gulf states
when candidate registration closed October 16 and she
remained the sole candidate in her district. Al Qa'oud is
running in the sixth district of the Southern Governorate,
the second least-populated of Bahrain's 40 districts with
approximately 1,200 voters. Al Qa'oud ran in the 2002
elections for a seat in the lower house Council of
Representatives (COR) in the Southern Governorate's first
district. She came a close second to her opponent
independent Salafi candidate Jasim Al Saeedi, pushing the
election to a run-off after none of the candidates received
over 50 percent of the votes. Al Qa'oud received over 45
percent of run-off votes cast in spite of conservative
supporters in the district joining forces to defeat her.


3. (C) In a conversation with the DCM on November 1, Al
Qa'oud recalled events of the 2002 run-off election. She
claimed that up until early afternoon she was leading in the
polls and remained hopeful of victory. She had been very
active in her district, going door to door visiting
constituents and talking with them personally. She claimed
that 90 percent of the people she spoke with personally
pledged they would give her their vote. Al Qa'oud then
described a shift in the voting when buses began to arrive at
the polling station disgorging people she did not recognize.
She made and received a flurry of calls to try to determine
from where these voters had come. She confirmed that they
were all on the voter lists and determined they were from
areas of her district that were known for their conservative
Islamic beliefs. She said that the voters had gathered at
conservative mosques and that buses had picked them up to
deliver them to the polling station. Al Qa'oud saw victory
slip away.

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Change to Hawar Islands District
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4. (SBU) Following her 2002 defeat in the first district of
the Southern Governorate and in the lead-up to the upcoming
elections, Al Qa'oud began to consider a change in address
enabling her to compete in another electoral district. She
stated in an interview that she was not afraid to compete
again against Salafis in her district, but saw a change to
the sixth district offering her a better opportunity to reach
a seat in parliament. Al Qa'oud, 50, unmarried, lives with
her brother Director of Bahrain's Civil Aviation Authority
Abdulrahman Al Qa'oud. Because he owns a home on one of the
Hawar islands in the sixth district, she was permitted to
change her legal address to Hawar. She said she was
surprised when potential competitors current MP Mohamed
Fayhan Al Dosari and Shamma' Al Dosari (a woman) decided not
to register as candidates, but commented that an unopposed
victory does not lessen the significance of the
accomplishment.


5. (SBU) Al Qa'oud is the director of human resources in the
Ministry of Finance. She received an MBA from the University

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of Nottingham in the UK. In an interview with English daily
Bahrain Tribune, Al Qa'oud said, "I feel a special affinity
to women's issues and I do think it is time women
decision-makers had a voice in these matters. I hope other
sisters in the elections will gain seats so we can strengthen
each other's causes." She wears a black abaya (full body
covering) in public, but said that this "is not a sign of
backwardness but of a conservative outlook that tempers my
modern approach to life."

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Bloggers Poke Fun
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6. (C) One blogger on Bahrain Online web site made fun of Al
Qa'oud's ascension to parliament asking, "Who voted for her?
Who is her constituency...birds and gazelles?" Another wrote
that her success was set up by the government, and this is
the reason the other two potential candidates in the sixth
district did not register. "This is part of the 'show' that
the King and the government like to put on." A third wrote
that the COR is turning into another Shura Council now that
the government is "appointing" representatives. In fact,
senior government officials privately have boasted
enthusiastically of Al Qa'oud's "election" to parliament,
leaving the impression that the government did in fact
orchestrate or at least support her efforts to represent
Hawar.

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Activists Have Mixed Reactions
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7. (SBU) Reactions of women activists in the press were
mixed. Women's rights advocate Ghada Jamsheer said she did
not accept Al Qa'oud as the first woman MP because she did
not gain the position fairly. Jamsheer claimed that Al
Qa'oud was assured a seat to display to the world that
Bahrain has a woman in parliament. "She is similar to women
in the Shura Council, who are appointed by the government."
Awal Women's Society President Fawziya Al Khaja welcomed the
new role Al Qa'oud will play in parliament, but said that she
would have been happier if Al Qa'oud had been elected by
contesting the vote with other candidates. She added that Al
Qa'oud is known to be a dedicated worker, and that Awal
supports her fully. Amnesty International representative
Fawzia Rabea said, "Al Qa'oud's presence in the parliament
will make a difference because it shows that women can do the
same as men and there is no discrimination. It is inspiring
to other women because they see that women can reach the top
in any organization."


8. (C) In an October 25 conversation with PolOff, Jamsheer
shared a more sinister interpretation of events leading to Al
Qa'oud's current position. She said that Al Qa'oud gained
much of her support in 2002 from the extended royal family
since there is a high concentration of Al Khalifa family
members living in the first district of the Southern
Governorate. Her family is close to the royal family. Her
competitor Jasim Al Saeedi was a relative unknown in 2002.
However, during the past four years of parliament, the GOB
began to see Al Saeedi as a valuable ally in furthering the
Sunnis' hold on power and influence in Bahrain and against
Shi'a encroachment. (Note: Although Jamsheer is Sunni, she
is an outspoken member of the opposition and has embraced the
Al Bandar report as truth and evidence of government
collaboration to strengthen Sunni rule and obstruct Shi'a
advances. Her outspoken nature brings much grief to family
members including cousin Abdulrahman Jamsheer, first deputy
speaker of the Shura Council. End note.)


9. (C) Jamsheer said that since the government now sees the
value of keeping Al Saeedi in the parliament, it was
individuals in the government who encouraged Al Qa'oud to
change her district so as not to take support away from Al
Saeedi. Jamsheer claims the government was behind the
decision of the two other potential candidates in the sixth
district not to run, even though they had publicly declared
their intention to run against Al Qa'oud.


10. (C) Bahrain Transparency Society president Jasim Al Ajmi
also expressed discomfort with Al Qa'oud's assured election
win. In a conversation with PolOff on October 30, he said
that the whole situation has a sense of being an artificial
victory. "It just doesn't feel right. It doesn't give us
the excitement to celebrate this as a victory for women
because it appears so contrived."

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Comment

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11. (C) The GOB has been trumpeting the achievements of
Bahraini women of late, but in this case there is a slightly
hollow ring to the praise. It may be the speed at which the
GOB media wheels began to turn, calling attention to Al
Qa'oud as the first woman parliamentarian in the Gulf the day
after registration closed and more than a full month before
the election itself, giving an even stronger feeling that the
result had been engineered. Most viewers who are rooting for
women have turned their attention on Wa'ad candidate and
University of Bahrain professor Munira Fakhro, who is in a
real political battle against eight other candidates, two of
whom are quite popular in her district. A victory by Fakhro,
who has also received the endorsement of leading Shi'a
political society Al Wifaq, would be a real victory for women
and would take attention away from the perception of
government intervention in Al Qa'oud's win. Multiple sources
tell us there will be ten women in parliament, divided
between the elected COR and appointed Shura Council, up from
six in the current Shura Council. Whatever the route,
women's participation in the Bahraini parliament is growing.

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