Kuwait, a small city-state on the Persian–Arabian Gulf, has undergone massive
political, economic, and social development throughout the 20th century. In spite of this, Kuwaiti
rulers continue to cherish what is perhaps an impossible dream: that Kuwait can be simultaneously
a “developed” country and a “traditional” tribally organized social
formation run by an autocratic ruler. This dream is echoed in equally ambivalent pronouncements
and policies regarding women, not only by representatives of the state but also by Kuwaiti
citizens. Should Kuwaiti women stand side by side with men in public life as half of a modern
society, or should they be secluded, subjected by, and submissive to the men in their lives as local
“tradition” demands? In this essay I argue that these two ambivalences are linked.
Democratization of Kuwaiti political life has proceeded in fits and starts that parallel the uneven
progress of democratization of gender relations in Kuwait. Perhaps in consequence, the politics of
both kinds of democratization have become more closely linked.
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