Women's groups in Bahrain are busy campaigning to let female citizens know they now have the right to vote and contest polls in the municipal election set for May, after a February decision gave them that right.

On March 17, Kuwait's Constitutional Court rejected two cases challenging the legality of the country's current election law, dealing yet another blow to women who have been seeking political enfranchisement for years.

In a rare action a few years ago, Saudi women literally sat in the drivers' seat for once and drove in a convoy of 40 cars through the streets of Riyadh, defying the strictures of the rigid rulers of the Saudi royal family.

These three instances show different aspects of women's political rights in the Gulf, conditioned by tradition, religion and law.

Women's issues are politicised not only because they are important, but also because of the way they intersect with other political issues and the role they play in defining the relationship between Islam and politics.

On a gender-conscious political canvas in the region that ranges from conservatism to relative liberalism, Bahrain has just surged ahead.

A February decree by King Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa provided for the restoration of the parliament and the transformation of the country of 650,000 people into a constitutional monarchy, with municipal elections set for May and legislative elections on Oct 24.

Enhance awareness

This has provided those like Nadia al Maskati, president of the Bahrain Young Ladies Association (BYLA) the space to now work to enhance women's awareness of their new rights. "The forthcoming election is an opportunity which the people in Bahrain got after more than four decades to take part in without any discrimination in the nation-building task,'' she says.

''It is also a rare opportunity where men and women are entitled to play an equal role and we are trying to encourage women to shed their traditional inhibitions,'' she explains.

Bahrain has been divided into five municipalities, each with 10 elected members who can work towards establishing facilities such as schools, health care units and community centres. "There's no reason why women should not use this opportunity to help improve the infrastructure in their areas,'' Nadia al Maskati explains.

But women's groups seeking suffrage in Saudi Arabia cannot yet look that far. At the start of the year, the head of the all-male Consultative Council, Sheikh Mohammed bin Jubair, ruled out naming women to the appointed body at a rare meeting of 50 women with the council members.

The women were seated in separate rooms, and the discussion facilitated by close-circuit television.

"The participation of female citizens in the decision-making process already exists" through inviting women experts to specific debates, Jubair says. "It is not important for women to be physically present, because the goal is to hear the opinion of specialists, be they men or women."

In Kuwait  it is not permissible for women to recommend or nominate other women or men''.

Conservative Islamic groups argue that women are not yet ready for voting rights because they are not yet "politically mature in a traditional society". They add that if women were enfranchised, they would neglect their children and families.

In addition, they point out that under syariah (religious) law, "men are superior to women and that women are weak and incapable of assuming an independent political stand. If they were enfranchised, they would be liable to manipulation by their husbands".

The fatwa provoked uproar amongst the groups like the Kuwaiti Girls Club and Women's Cultural and Social Society. "Islam says a woman should cover her hair and her arms, not her mind," activists protested.

New beginning

Lulwa al Qitami, a leading Kuwaiti activist, says it is a matter of time before women vote in Kuwait.

"The present fight is not the end, but a new beginning,'' says Lubna Abbas, a member of the Kuwaiti Women's Affairs Committee. ''It is up to each of us to ensure that this message is not lost — it is only a question of where and when (women will get political rights) and these depend on the extent of our steadfastness and commitment to achieve this.''

''The protests and court cases are a message to the government and politicians,'' she explains.

"The court didn't accept my appeal to look into the election," says activist Rula Dashti, who filed one of the cases this month. Still, she hopes the parliament will be able to make it easier for activists to take issues to the constitutional court.

The women's political rights debate in the Gulf goes back to 1971, when the burning of women's abaya (black robe) preceded the first woman's conference under the auspices of the Society for the Advancement of the Family in Kuwait.

Society reacted with shock and disbelief, but the recent developments in Bahrain signal that the chapter on women's empowerment in the region has flipped over and is heading toward what some campaigners in the region say, or hope, is a logical end. (IPS)