MIXED SAUDI REACTION TO KUWAITI ELECTIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L RIYADH 005277

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/03/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL SA
SUBJECT: MIXED SAUDI REACTION TO KUWAITI ELECTIONS

Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Jonathan Fishbein
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (U) On June 29, the Kuwaiti Parliament held elections, in
which women were allowed to run as candidates and vote for
the first time. There were twenty-seven women candidates,
but none were elected. Saudi media reported mixed reactions
to the results. Most Saudi media reported that the elections
signaled progress for women's political participation, though
some media commented that the losses were due to a lack of
confidence in the female candidates.


2. (U) Writers on many Arabic-language internet sites voiced
strong opinions that women have no place in politics.
Statements on several sites claimed that women's
participation in parliament, rubbing shoulders with men, and
pictures of women candidates in newspapers were in direct
violation of Islam. Such editorials opined that many women
voted for men "because women have a high political awareness
and know that men must be in the parliament, not women."
Some writers even alluded to the "noise" of women's rights in
Saudi Arabia, claiming that women in the Kingdom are backed
by Western agents and not by actual supporters.


3. (SBU) Despite such commentary, many intellectuals remain
optimistic. Discussions with several female academics and
intellectuals from the Riyadh community indicate that they
were pleased with the results of the Kuwaiti elections. They
told PolOff that although no women were elected, reforms in
this part of the world move very slowly, the fact that women
were candidates in the Kuwaiti election was a positive step
overall. They also noted that the reforms in Saudi Arabia
are slowly improving. Steps such as allowing women to vote
and participate in elections in neighboring countries, help
to bolster the reform movement in the Kingdom.


4. (C) COMMENT: Although the English-language Saudi media
generally reported the Kuwaiti parliamentary elections as a
sign of general progress for women's rights and political
participation, there remains a strong, conservative element
of Saudi society adamantly opposed to reformation efforts.
The strong response by Saudi conservatives to the election
results follows the recent trend of counter-reformation.
Conservatives seized upon this opportunity to gloat, denoting
the winning of the male incumbents as the only proper result,
and twisting a historical first into a failure of the West to
successfully influence the people of the region. END
COMMENT.
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