Women on the move KUWAIT'S minister of Islamic affairs said his ministry would soon issue a new fatwa (religious edict) entrusting the emir to rule on a controversy over whether to give women political rights. "The fatwa panel met recently and concluded that the issue is a bone of contention and that the ruler should have the final say on it," Abdullah Al- Maatuk told reporters in parliament. He said the fatwa would be signed and released next Saturday. The new fatwa would replace one issued in 1985 which clearly stated that Islam forbids women from voting and contesting parliamentary elections. "The committee found conflicting views by various Muslim scholars and groups on the issue. In this case, the ruler will resolve the dispute," Al- Maatuk said. The new edict is expected to boost chances of Kuwaiti women winning political rights in the face of stiff opposition by Kuwaiti Islamists and conservative tribal MPs. Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah favours giving women the vote. In 1999, he issued a decree granting women full political rights but it was narrowly rejected by parliament. On 7 March, the Kuwaiti parliament approved a government request to speed up discussion of a draft law that amends Article 1 of the electoral law which limits voting and candidacy rights to Kuwaiti males. Proposals to enfranchise Kuwaiti women and lower the voting age to 18 would triple the number of voters in the country, who currently form 15 per cent of the native population of 956,000. An opinion poll published on Tuesday in Al-Rai Al-Aam daily showed that most Kuwaiti men support awarding women full political rights, while just over a quarter of male voters oppose such rights. The poll, which surveyed a randomly selected sample of 2,015 Kuwaiti men, showed that 50.2 per cent of respondents back women's right to vote and stand for office, while only 27.9 per cent opposed women's right to take part in the political process. Some 21.8 per cent of those polled said they backed the right of women to vote but not their right to run for public office. No deal IRAN has shunned a US offer to back the European Union in its talks with Iran by offering what is dubbed as "economic incentives" that includes dropping Washington's objection to the Islamic Republic's application to join the World Trade Organisation, and allowing Europeans to sell Tehran spare parts with American components for civilian airplanes in return of Iran's agreement to freeze its nuclear activities. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said this week that no incentive can replace Iran's legal right to use nuclear technology. The Iranian minister explained that if the US was willing to make good on its previous mistakes and lift its sanctions imposed on Iran "this can not be called an incentive". "No economic incentive can be equal to Iran's right [to nuclear energy]," Kharrazi reiterated. Kharrazi also said that ongoing talks with the EU are so sensitive and decisive that no one can predict its outcome. According to the Paris accord, both Iran and the EU will evaluate the process of their talks and will submit a report to the Steering Committee meeting on 23 March, which will set the criteria for the continuation of the talks. Allouni under arrest TAYSEER Allouni, the Al-Jazeera reporter who gained fame with his exclusive reports from Afghanistan and interview with Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in 2001, was released from a Spanish prison and put under house arrest pending trial. The decision, taken for health reasons, was hailed by his family and human rights groups which have rallied support for Allouni's release, reports Mustafa El-Menshawy. "That would allow for better health care than that offered to him while in jail since November last year," his wife Fatma Al- Zahra told Al-Ahram Weekly. Speaking hours after news of his release made rounds worldwide, Al-Zahra insisted she has no doubts her husband is "100 per cent innocent". Allouni, a Spanish national of Syrian origin, is accused of misusing his career as a correspondent for Al-Jazeera in Afghanistan to help Al-Qaeda operatives. He vehemently denies the charges. Meanwhile, human rights activists and Arab journalists met the decision with relief. They called it a victorious step in the road to Allouni's release. "The move came thanks to efforts made at three levels: official, by the Qatari government, semi- official, by the Arab League and non-official, by non-governmental organisations," Haitham Al- Mannaa, a Paris-based veteran human rights activist, told the Weekly. Al-Mannaa, who heads the International Committee for the Defence of Tayseer Allouni, said his group's website received 8,000 e-mails every day in support of Allouni. Allouni was detained by Spanish authorities in September 2003. He was released one month later, only to be re-arrested in November 2004 for fears he might flee the country while awaiting trial. Al-Jazeera dismissed the charges against her reporter as concocted to serve pressures, mainly from the US, on the satellite channel for changing its editorial policy.
