Kuwait's Thaw

In some ways, yes. Plenty of Arab governments have been looking for painless ways to get on the right side of the reform issue internationally. And that may explain the growing enthusiasm of the Kuwaiti government for the idea.

Nathan Brown

What are some of the challenges that female candidates in particular face in this election?

I think a women running in a heavily religious constituency would come into problems because of the conservative nature of the voters. It's not just a matter of convincing women to vote for them but even in getting access to voters. For instance, public gatherings are traditionally male only, or more recently, sex segregated. So if any women candidates were to win, I would say it would be in the liberal or secular constituencies of society. There are also no women that have run a political campaign before. Kuwait has regular parliamentary elections, and plenty of incumbents win. And there are simply no women incumbents. There has been some effort internationally, with some support and training of women candidates, but it not clear how much effect that will have.

Does the attainment of women's suffrage reflect larger trends in the role of women in Kuwait society?

I wouldn't say so. Kuwait has always been a little bit odd this way. Some elements of society are gravitating toward the conservative end of the spectrum, looking like the most conservative parts of Saudi Arabia, and other parts are looking like some of the more secular parts of the Arab world, like Beirut. So while I'm not sure this represents a really big shift in that way, it does represent a triumph on this major issue [by] women's-rights advocates.