By Elizabeth Kelleher
Washington File Special Correspondent

Washington -- At least 60 women from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen will receive political candidate training at a program co-sponsored by the United States and Qatar in Doha, Qatar February 14-18.

The al-Khalif Women's Campaign Initiative has been organized by the U.S. Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), in cooperation with Qatar's Supreme Council for Family Affairs.

Organizers said the majority of countries in this sub-region have begun to hold elections at the national or local level, but that women face obstacles preventing them from being elected or from working effectively if they are.

Heba Elshazli, deputy director of the Middle East team for the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a group that is helping to organize the event, acknowledged the uphill battle women have in some of these countries to gain a real political voice. In some cases there are no elections at all, and in others women are not permitted to vote or to gain positions in political parties. But Elshazli said these meetings, which will train women candidates, are still justified. "The doctor does not necessarily visit healthy people," she said.

The NDI and the International Republican Institute, also an organizer, are non-governmental organizations that promote candidate training and the development of strong political parties overseas. They will assist MEPI, a presidential initiative established in 2002 to support development efforts in the Middle East and expand opportunities for all people in the region, especially women and children.

Organizers said that even when Arab women hold the right to vote or run for office, there often are restrictions put on them. Party organizations often do not support women in leadership roles. And in some Gulf states, "emergency laws" stunt political activism by women or men.

In countries where there isn't even universal male suffrage, women will "come along later," predicted John Voll, a professor at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. There are elections in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates do not hold legislative elections, and women's political engagement is secondary to general human rights there, Voll said.

"This is not particularly an Islamic issue," he said, naming several Muslim-majority countries where there have been female heads of government -- Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia. "But," he said, "there is something distinctive about Muslim- majority countries that are Arab." While there has been quiet movement toward giving women a bigger role in politics in the region, he said that he expects any dramatic efforts to "wait until the dust settles in Iraq."

In Bahrain, during the 1990s, democracy grew, and the government balanced the development of parliamentary participation with royal prerogatives, Voll said. In 2002, for the first time in 25 years, parliamentary elections were held there. Despite universal suffrage, women candidates did not win office. However, male candidates held "ladies' nights" to address women's issues, a step toward greater involvement, Voll said.

Organizers of this week's Doha meetings said that the majority of countries in this region have begun to hold elections, if not at the national level, then at the regional or local level.

Saudi Arabia has announced a transition to municipal-level elections over five years.
Oman extended the vote to all adult citizens and held parliamentary elections in October 2003. Qatar has a new constitution, ratified by public vote, and plans parliamentary elections within the year. Yemen has a multiparty political system and held elections in April 2000. Women there, Voll said, have been relatively visible if not influential at the highest policy levels. Kuwait has a directly elected national assembly. While women don't vote there, in 1999, Kuwait's ruler proposed giving them the right to vote. The idea was defeated by just two votes in the Kuwaiti parliament.

Elshazli said, "There was a time in the U.S. when women didn't have the right to vote. I don't think it's a permanent condition. I think of it as temporary."

At what is being nicknamed "the campaign school" this week, participants will be divided into three groups, each of which will be geographically diverse. In one group, there will be women who have never been involved in a campaign at all, in another will be women who have put their hats into the ring to get elected or actively advocated for change, and a third group will consist of women who would like to work behind the scenes as volunteers rather than run themselves.

Each group will have two trainers, from Canada, the United States, Jordan, Morocco or Lebanon. The groups will go over case studies in the mornings to learn how to plan a campaign, develop an effective message and target constituents. In the afternoons, they will rotate between listening to speakers who have faced great challenges to become politically active and attending one-on-one workshops to help them with their public speaking, image and individual plans. Many participants will focus on an issue of interest to them -- the environment, child welfare or education, for instance.

"MEPI champions the expansion of the political space to include all voices,
including women," said Alina Romanowski, the director of the MEPI office in the State Department. "However, for women to play a pivotal role in the political debate, they must be poised with the skills to hold elected office and represent their constituents. This MEPI program is focused on providing these activists and potential candidates with those skills."