Women's political rights in Bahrain

Women’s political rights have been a cornerstone of the political reforms initiated by King Hamad with for the first time women being given the right to vote and stand as candidates in national elections after the constitution was amended in 2002. The extension of equal political rights has been accompanied by a self-conscious drive to promote women to positions of authority within government.

The move to give women the vote in 2002 was part of a wide ranging political reforms that have seen the establishment of a democratically elected parliament and the release of political prisoners. Before 2002, women had no political rights and could neither vote in elections or stand as candidates.

There was though some ambiguity towards the extension of political rights from sections of Bahraini society, not least from women themselves with 60% of Bahraini women in 2001 opposed to extending the vote to women.

Although many women stood as candidates in both municipal and parliamentary elections in 2002 none were elected to office. Women candidates were conspicuous by their absence in the lists of Islamist parties such as Al Wefaq, Al-Menbar Islamic Society and Asalah.

Following the poor performance of women candidates in the parliamentary elections, six women including one Christian, were appointed to the upper chamber of parliament, the Shura Council. In 2004, Bahrain appointed its first female minister, Dr Nada Haffadh to the position of Health Minister, and in 2005, Dr Fatima Albalooshi, the second woman minister was appointed to the cabinet. In April 2005, Shura member Alees Samaan became the first woman to chair a parliamentary session in the Arab world when she chaired the Shura Council. The head of the main women's organisation, the Supreme Council for Women, Ms Lulwa Al Awadhi, has been given the title of 'honorary cabinet minister'.

In June 2006, Bahrain was elected head of the United Nations General Assembly, and used the honour to appoint Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa as the Assembly's President, making her the first Middle Eastern woman and only the third woman in history to take over the post. Sheikha Haya is a leading Bahraini lawyer and women's rights advocate who will take over the post at a time of change for the world body. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said of her, "I met her yesterday and I found her quite impressive. All the member states are determined to work with her and to support her, and I think she's going to bring a new dimension to the work here."

Several women's rights activists have become political personalities in Bahrain in their own right, or even gain international recognition, such as Ghada Jamsheer, who was named by Forbes magazine as one of the "ten most powerful and effective women in the Arab world" in May 2006.

Ghada Jamsheer, the most prominent women's rights activist in Bahrain has called the government's reforms "artificial and marginal". In a statement in December 2006 she said: The government is using the family law issue as a bargaining tool with opposition Islamic groups. This is evident through the fact that the authorities raise this issue when ever they want to distract attention from other controversial political issues. While no serious steps are taken to help approve this law, although the government and its puppet National Assembly had no trouble in the last four years when it came to approving restrictive laws related to basic freedoms.

All of this is why no one in Bahrain believes in Government clichés and government institution like the High Council for Women. The government used women’s rights as a decorative tool on the international level. While the High Council for Women was used to hinder non-governmental women societies and to block the registration of the Women Union for many years. Even when the union was recently registered, it was restricted by the law on societies.

Bahrain's move was widely credited with encouraging women's rights activists in the rest of the Persian Gulf to step up demands for equality. In 2005, it was announced that Kuwaiti women would be granted equal political rights to men.

Personal Status Law
The most pressing issue for many Bahraini women is the lack of a unified family law or Personal Status Law as it is known, leaving matters of divorce and child custody to the discretion of Sharia judges, who have been criticised for a lack of consistency in their judgements. In November 2005, the Supreme Council for Women in an alliance with other women's rights activists began a campaign for change - organising demonstrations, putting up posters across the island and carrying out a series of media interviews (see Supreme Council's website for full details in Arabic).

However, reform of the law has been resisted by the leading Shia Islamist party, Al Wefaq, resulting in a major political showdown with women's rights activists. Al Wefaq has stated that neither Chamber of Deputies of Bahrainelected MPs nor the government have authority to change the law because these institutions could 'misinterpret the word of God'. Instead the right to reform the law is the sole responsibility of religious leaders.

In 9 November 2005, supporters of Al Wefaq claimed to have organised Bahrain's largest ever demonstration with 120,000 protesting against the introduction of the Personal Status Law, and for the maintenance of each religious group having their own divorce and inheritance laws. On the same day an alliance of women's rights organisations held a rally calling for the unified law, but this attracted only 500 supporters.

The issue of the introduction of a unified Personal Status Law has divided civil society into two camps, with women's rights and human rights groups wanting its introduction opposed by Shia Islamist groups in alliance with the wahabbi Asalah:

For:
 * Supreme Council for Women
 * Bahrain Human Rights Society
 * Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society
 * Bahrain Women's Union
 * Women's Petition
 * National Democratic Action
 * Al Sharaka (Bahrain branch of Amnesty International)

Against:
 * Bahrain Centre for Human Rights
 * Al Wefaq
 * Asalah
 * Islamic Action Party
 * Islamic Awareness Society
 * Capital Transparency Society

2006 Election
Eighteen female candidates are contesting Bahrain's parliamentary elections on 25 November 2006, with one candidate, Lateefa Al Gaood, winning by default even before polling after her two opponents in her constituency dropped out of the race. Most of the women are running for Leftist parties or as independents, with no Islamist party being represented by a woman, although salafist party Asalah is the only group to publicly oppose women's candidature in parliamentary elections.

For further information see Bahrain election 2006 women candidates.