Bahrain gets first woman lawmaker as others face uphill struggle

Latifa al-Qouhoud has become the first woman lawmaker in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain because no one is opposing her in next month's elections, but other women candidates lament their own poor prospects.

Eighteen women are among the 221 candidates running for the 40-seat parliament to be elected on November 25, but a shortage of campaign financing, prejudice and Bahrain's confessional divide complicate their challenge.

The short electoral track record for women in this archipelago of 650,000 people off the Saudi coast gives little reason for hope.

Bahraini women got the vote for the first time in a 2001 referendum that turned the country into a constitutional monarchy.

Thirty-one women stood as candidates in municipal and parliamentary elections the next year, but none of them emerged victorious. The parliamentary polls were Bahrain's first since 1973.

Munira Fakhrou is backed by the main Shiite opposition in a country where Shiites are a majority but that is ruled by a Sunni dynasty.

A member of the left-wing Association for Democratic National Action, she will be facing a fellow Sunni, Salah Ali, head of the Islamic National Forum, which is ideologically linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

She says that "forming political alliances is a determining factor in women being able to make a breakthrough," adding that the shortage of money is "an obstacle for (women) candidates, who usually don't have the resources."

That view is echoed by Sunni candidate Mariam Ruwai, who says that "those who finance campaigns generally hesitate to support women."

Ruwai also laments that Islamist candidates are "using the mosques and religious forums" to "attack female candidates," and that the playing field is uneven as a result.

Another Sunni candidate, state television executive Fawzia Zinel, complains about the attitudes to be found in Bahrain's "political associations," which take the place of political parties, which are banned.

She says they "always look at the confessional background of candidates, rather than their competence, before deciding whom to support". She adds that the government has also been slow in promoting women's rights.

Qouood herself reached the second round in Bahrain's last legislative polls, but was eventually beaten by an Islamist, whose camp dominates the outgoing chamber.

This time around, when registration closed on Tuesday, Qouhoud was the only candidate and won a seat unopposed.

Despite the bleak prospects for other female candidates, there has been some progress, however, on opening up positions of authority and influence to women in Bahrain.

There are two women on the cabinet -- Health Minister Nada Haffadh and Social Affairs Minister Fatima al-Blushi. And in June, Mona Jassem Mohammed al-Kawari was named as the country's first woman judge.

The confessional divide of which Zinel spoke is a major issue in Bahrain.

The country was shaken by a wave of Shiite unrest in the 1990s, and members of the majority community boycotted the 2002 parliamentary election to protest what they saw as the undermining of the elected house's authority.

They also objected to splitting legislative power equally between the elected chamber and an appointed consultative council.

This time round, it looked as if they might boycott again over fears a conspiracy was underway to rig the vote to the Sunnis' benefit.

But King Hamad reassured the Shiite spiritual leadership that there will be no attempt to fix the elections. After a meeting with Hamad last week, the Council of Muslim Scholars called on the community to turn out.

"Despite all the political and security crises and all the disappointments, the Council of Muslim Scholars believes that taking part in the elections is the best choice to counter this situation with all its complications," a statement said.

Shiite fears were fanned by electoral commission plans to enfranchise thousands of newly naturalised Bahrainis, overwhelmingly Sunnis from south Asia, in what the opposition charges was a blatant attempt to inflate the minority sect's electoral weight.

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AFP 191138 GMT 10 06

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