Progress Amid Resistance

KUWAIT 24726Ahmad Al-Khaled, “Kuwaitis Divided Over Segregation,” Kuwait Times, February 10,2008, http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTM3OTczMzA0Ng==.27World Bank, “GenderStats—Labor Force,” http://go.worldbank.org/4PIIORQMS0[accessed December 15, 2009].28Kuwait Economic and Strategic Outlook (Kuwait: Global Investment House KSSC, May2008), http://www.globalinv.net/research/Kuwait-Economic-052008.pdf.29“Gender and Citizenship Initiative: Kuwait” (UNDP, Programme on Governance in theArab Region [POGAR]), http://gender.pogar.org/countries/country.asp?cid=8, ac cessedJune 25, 2008; Al-Sayed Al-Qassas, “Labor Inspectors Granted Right to Arrest PrivateSector Violators,” Arab Times, August 5, 2008, http://www.arabtimesonline.com/kuwaitnews/pagesdetails.asp?nid=16587&ccid=22.30The Labor Law (No. 38 of 1964) governs labor relations in the private sector, whilethe Civil Service Law (No. 15 of 1979) governs civil service employment in the publicsector.31See “Social Affairs Received 15,000 Complaints from Expatriate Workers,” Al-Seyassah,August 18, 200832Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Asia and the Pacifi c, 2004 (Washington,DC: U.S. Social Security Administration, Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics,March 2005), http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/progdesc/ssptw/2004-2005/asia/index.html.33“NGOs Hit Out at Assembly Law on Limiting Women’s Work Hours; Ministry Workson Bylaws for ‘Special Permissions,’” Arab Times, June 26, 2007, http://www.arabtimesonline.com/client/pagesdetails.asp?nid=2066&ccid=9.34“Kuwait Hastens Women’s Vote Bill,” the BBC (London, UK), March 7, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4325207.stm.35“Democratic Governance: Civil Society: Kuwait,” UNDP-POGAR, http://www.pogar.org/countries/civil.asp?cid=8, accessed May 4, 2008.36Tamara Cofman Wittes, “Elections in the Arab World: Progress or Peril?” Saban CenterMiddle East Memo No. 11, February 12, 2007, http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007/0212middleeast_wittes.aspx.37“Kuwait,” World Press Freedom Review, 2006 (Vienna: International Press Institute,2007), http://www.freemedia.at/cms/ipi/freedom_detail.html?country=/KW0001/KW0004/KW0096/&year=2006.38Note that not all lawyers are registered with the Kuwait Bar Association (KBA); registrationis required only for lawyers working in the private sector. In 2008, the associationhad 1,500 members, of whom 300 were women. Author’s interview with bar associationofficials, August 27, 2008.39Diana Elias, “Kuwait Hardliners Walk out of Parliament,” Associated Press, June 1,2008, http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-01-2992318437_x.htm.40“Kuwait’s Oil and Finance Ministers Return in New Cabinet,” AP, Gulf News, May 29,2009, http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/kuwaitkuwait-s-oil-and-finance-ministers-return-in-new-cabinet-1.2083.