Journal of International Development J. Int. Dev. 13, 583598 (2001) DOI: 10.1002/jid.

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WOMEN AND WAR: THE ROLE KUWAITI WOMEN PLAYED DURING THE IRAQI OCCUPATION
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1* and HADI RIDHA2 MARIA JULIA Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA 2 Department of Social Work, Sufat, Kuwait

Abstract: In many societies, women face a gender bias rooted in feudal socio-economic relations and religious institutions that justify female subordination (Youseff, 1972). Yet, aided by the experience of human rights movements, women have made progress in the past few decades in overcoming a cultural tradition of male domination and superiority. Circumstances of war have also empowered women, allowing them to become active agents , 1998). However, movement toward in their own development and liberation (Cagan and Julia equality or democratization during these conicts indicate that `women's success might be ephemeral, a product of crisis mobilization' (Jaquette et. al., 1994. 2). Once the armed conict is over and peace returns, women's choices, rights, and lives once again tend to become circumscribed by tradition, religion, and male prerogative. There is a vital need for information about what happens to women during and following periods of war their survival strategies, the metamorphosis of gender relations, the retention of positive changes, the identication of their needs, and the support required to meet those needs (Wallace and March, 1991). Attempting to answer such questions, the purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of Kuwaiti women during and after the Iraqi invasion and occupation of 1990. The authors' contention is that, in terms of gender empowerment, Kuwaiti women's experience during this period was and is no differnt than the experiences of women during and after wartime crises elsewhere. In an attempt to take into account variations of context and historical specicities the impact of Islamic beliefs and practices and their compatibility or incompatibility with women's rights are examined alongside social development/status variables. Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION In many societies, women face a gender bias rooted in feudal socio-economic relations and religious institutions that justify female subordination (Youseff, 1972). Yet, aided by
Correspondence to: Maria Julia , The Ohio State University, College of Social Work, Stillman Hall, 1947 College Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1162, USA.

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the experience of human rights movements, women have made progress in the past few decades in overcoming a cultural tradition of male domination and superiority. Circumstances of war have also empowered women, allowing them to become active agents in , 1998). However, movements their own development and liberation (Cagan and Julia toward equality or democratization during these conicts indicate that `women's success might be ephemeral, a product of crisis mobilization' (Jaquette et al., 1994, p.2). Once the armed conict is over and peace returns, women's choices, rights, and lives tend once again to become circumscribed by tradition, religion, and male prerogative. No matter how `nontraditional' women's roles might have been during the crisis, a return to `normalcy' means a return to the status quo regarding gender relations (Chinchilla, 1994, p.12). There is a vital need for information about what happens to women during and following periods of war their survival strategies, the metamorphosis of gender relations, the retention of positive changes, the identication of their needs, and the support required to meet those needs (Wallace and March, 1991). Attempting to answer such questions, the purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of Kuwaiti women during and after the Iraqi invasion and occupation of 19901. The authors' contention is that Kuwaiti women's experience during this period, in terms of gender empowerment experiences, tends to be no different than the experiences of women during and after wartime crises elsewhere. In an attempt to socially and historically contextualize the inquiry, the impact of Islamic beliefs and practices and their compatibility or incompatibility with women's rights are examined alongside social status variables operationalized through participation in organizations and associations, leadership positions, work/paid labor, training and education, and decision making activities. The authors echo Moaddel's (1998) assumption that as the `values and basic principles of any religion structures its views on women, the specic religious instructions on women are shaped within the context of the dominant debates and levels of social transformation in a particular historical period' (p.127). In Kuwait, along with gender ideals embodied in the Quran and the traditions (hadith), the actual condition of women in sociohistorical contexts must be considered. Indeed, while the Quran provides principles and guidelines that have been incorporated into Islamic law through selection and interpretation, women's role in society has been historically determined as much by social and economic factors as by religious prescriptions. HISTORICAL EXPERIENCES Historical examples illustrate the effects and after-effects of the mobilization of women into new roles during periods of war. The political, economic, and social changes brought about by revolutions in the developing world present women with unique opportunities. Revolutions typically alter or overthrow many of the traditional social structures and values that have historically oppressed women, and they create new structures that present opportunities for women's upward mobility.
1 Placing this analysis in its proper historical and sociopolitical context requires a brief overview of the Kuwait society. Kuwait, a small Middle Eastern city-state, was a British protectorate until it became independent in 1961. With an area of about 5,800 square miles, it is situated between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Prior to the oil era there was hardly any agriculture, and water and food had to be imported. Because of its location at the head of the gulf and an excellent natural harbor, Kuwait town has been an important market and a warehouse for trade with the interior of Arabia. During the rst 15 years of the oil era (1950 to 1965), Kuwait was transformed into a modern city-state with large commercial and nancial institutions. In 1970, Kuwait had a population of 738,662 (Nath, 1978).

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For example, because of their willingness to violate traditional gender roles, many guerrilla armies assign important military positions to women; indeed, women held important military command positions in both the Nicaraguan government and Sandinistas guerrilla militaries during the guerrilla struggles (Puar, in Afshar, 1996). Women constituted 20 to 30 per cent of the Sandinista forces in Nicaragua, and about 25 per cent of Uruguay's (1994; Tupamaros (Handelman, 1996). Algeria and Flakoll (1983), Saywell (1985) and Julia 1995) have also documented the involvement of women in every revolutionary movement in the country of EI Salvador as the mechanism by which they have become liberated. In the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, which carried out a 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia, women constituted 30 per cent of the army. While women fought on the front lines in Zimbabwe's 15-year war for independence from white colonialists, they grew accustomed to the idea of equality. Consequently, after independence in 1980, the black majority government adopted a progressive constitution that prohibited discrimination, making Zimbabwe a beacon in Africa (Tucker, 1999). The Algerian Revolution (195462) has been credited for setting a precedent for women's visibility, yet is also regarded as the source of a patriarchal postcolonial society. `Caught up in the war of symbols that always follows the war of weapons' (Cook, 1994, p. 153). Cook adds for Arab women, temporary gender role reversals during periods of war do not lead to role transformations. Steinson (1982) belives that the status of women in France progressed more in the three years of the First World War than in 50 years of efforts during peacetime. French and British women assert that their emancipation began during the First World War (Saywell, 1985). An unusual number of Soviet Union women who participated in the Great Patriotic War (WWII) returned home to their war (Saywell, 1985); the `standard model' (Elshtain, 1987). Women's resistance, however dened within a particular context during of war, ends in `back to prior-to-war' gender status. Palestine women's experiences (initiatives and leadership, and deance of conventional categorizations) in their war with the Israelis in 1948 did not replace traditional values and roles in postwar periods. (Glavanis-Grantham, in c c Afshar, 1996; Cooke, in Go ek & Balaghi, 1994; Hudson, in Go ek & Balaghi, 1994). In the USA the Civil War created a `revolution of woman herself' (Stanton et al., 1889/ 1922). According to Massey (1966), the Civil War provided `a spring-board from which [women] leaped beyond the circumscribed women's sphere into arenas heretofore reserved to men' (p. 367). According to Elshtain (1987), new challenges were opened to women during the period, accompanied by an intensied desire for `personal, individual liberty'. The American Civil War brought for women a new-found identity within a reallocation and redenition of duties and their nature (p. 185). Also in the USA, The National American Women's Suffrage Association professed women's readiness to work in a variety of capacities during the European war in 1914. Despite fears and anxiety, women at that time `described their wartime activities as personally liberating,' a statement that echoes the suffragist's words cited elsewhere: `we condemn war, but given war, look at everything we have done' (Elshtain, 1987, pp. 177, 188). By one woman's account, during the First World War, women discovered `that one possessed strength one didn't know one had, that one could enter the world and persevere'. During that period, women `developed selfreliance,' gained `assurance in [their] abilities,' `realized their power,' `were mobilized from decorum to daring,' and made the move from domestic to skilled labour (Elshtain, 1987, p. 186). Thus, all things considered, the experience of wars has had the ironic consequence of unsettling women for the good. In a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Lash (1971)
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illustrates such liberation with Roosevelt's observation that `World War II was my emancipation and education' (p.67). Roosevelt felt that war `dissolves imprisonment of society,' allowing woman to emerge from the experience as a `transformed person' (p. 188). In her account of women in war, however, Elshtain (1987) contends that the `utopian ontology of peace, i.e. unreal expectations from peace, guarantees women's postwar hopelessness'. In a similar vein, according to German feminist Hafkesbinsk, post-war women who are disappointed with the diminution of the gender equilibrium they experienced during war tend to subsequently perceive the experienced war as a `moral project' (cited in Elshtain, 1987, p. 255). Conceptual Framework Development has been dened by Clark (1991) as a process of change that enables people to `take charge of their own destinies and realize their full potential' (p.26), and it requires `building up in the people the condence, skills, assets, and freedoms necessary to achieve (1999) have dened social development as an expanded goals' (p.26). Carsten and Julia opportunity for people through their own active and collective participation to gain access to economic resources, health care services, and education. The ultimate goal of social development is the `growth and development of the individual within the context of collective fellowship', a process that leads to de-alienation (Haque et al., 1977, p.ix). Such a paradigm must combat exploitation, particularly the oppression of women, and must make social institutions accountable to the people (Clark, 1991, p.27). Social scientist Youseff (1978) has dened or described women's status as having two components: the rights given to women and the respect given to them. Confusion results because these two factors are used interchangeably, when in reality they are often inversely correlated. Thus, for example, while women receive great respect in certain societies that accord them few rights, in other societies they experience equality of rights in arenas in which they compete with men, but may be accorded relatively low respect (Hijab, 1998). The dearth of research on gender issues and the persistence of conservative attitudes in the Arab world exacerbate the inability to recognize and the unwillingness to acknowledge the positive relationship between women's socio-economic integration and overall social development. Yet, under-endowment and under-utilization of women are both discriminatory and economically unsound; Blumberg's (1989) work, in particular, has shown the positive effects of women's educational attainment and socioeconomic participation in the wealth of nations. As reported by Blumberg, gender is a `key variable in the development equation' related to issues of efciency as well as equity (Palmer in Khoury and Moghadam, 1995). Furthermore, the United Nations has tended to emphasize the maintenance of tradition as a central problem to be confronted and overcome in development efforts (Haddad and Esposito, 1998). This paper is anchored on these social development assumptions and paradigms.2
2 The overall framework of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean for the study of women (1988) is based on criteria which include participation of women at the various levels of society such as work, , 1994). Salios-Rothchild (in Momsen & Townsend, 1987) has considered education, and organizations (Julia important additional concepts to examine women's lives in countries of the developing world, such as women's ability to control events in their lives and the extent to which women have the same life options as men within the same group and social class. These indicatiors, presumed to measure the status of women, are also presented by Stewart and Winter (in Momsen & Townsend, 1987), although they are differently conceptualized as economic and political indices. The authors of this paper focus their inquiry on these variables and their categories.

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Women and War ISLAMIC CONTEXT: STRUCTURAL DISTINCTIONS AND FEATURES

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Hunter (1991) contends that religion establishes the meaning, appropriateness, and signicance of social arrangements and institutions, and that it shapes the reasoning of believers. Religion creates and reinforces group norms through interpersonal interaction (White, 1968) and ultimately inuences world views. Cultural traditions such as those of Islam consist of interwoven yet carefully circumscribed bodies of ideas, beliefs, doctrines, assumptions and behaviour patterns (Huntington, 1991; Zartman, 1992). For instance, in Islam, the salience of religious practices depends on whether practices are dictated by the Quran or by the hadiths. As Denny (1985) has noted, the Quran is `the most authoritative source for Islamic doctrine and practice, whereas the hadiths are [interpretive] reports documenting the words, deeds and habitual practices of the Prophet, which serve as ideals for Muslim behavior' (Meyer et al., 1998, p.133). Muhammad's principles regarding women and their place in political life have been shaped by the various traditions within the Middle East, resulting in a variety of views toward women and their place in society (Ayubi, 1992). Structural distinctions and features within Islam mark differences between sects (Sunni and Shia); differences in interpretation, emphasis, or teaching about Islam by different schools of thought in distinct geographical locations (Barakat, 1993); and differences in alliances among Islamic nations and their citizens brought about by history or by recent events (in Meyer et al., 1998, p.131). It is important to consider these complexities when examining whether the extension of rights to women is compatible with Islam (Huntington, 1991; Zartman, 1992). Within each sect, citizens support varied ideas about women's participation in politics that can be traced to the schools of thought and interpretations of Islam. Indeed, notable differences in the effects of social cohesion between and within sects account for citizens' preferences for including or excluding women.3 Status of Women Durkheim, Marx, and Weber examined the essential role played by religion in social processes. Durkheim's mimetic conception of religion, Weber's notion of elective afnity, and Marx's substructuresuperstructure metaphor have been used by sociologists to understand the connection between religious ideas and social environment (in Moaddel, 1998). A persistent theme in virtually all religions revolves around the status and roles of women in society, and religious movements are always tied to the existing social conditions. According to Moaddel (1998), the status of women in society has been one of the most hotly contested contemporary ideological debates between the Islamic world and the West (case in point: from the nineteenth century on, Europeans and their Westernized allies in the Islamic countries have condemned Islam for its `mistreatment' of women).
3 In Kuwait, some Sunni follow the Saudi Arabian (Najd) clergy and its beliefs which emphasize keeping women apart from the larger society and maintaining a patriarchal social structure. Other Sunni follow the Egyptian clergy (Alazhar) and/or the philosophy of the Muslim Brotherhood which views women as more integrated into society. Many Kuwaiti Shias follow the Iraqi (Najaf) school of thought which is more traditional in its views toward women. Finally, a signicant number of Shias follow the Iranian (Qom) clergy who support women's political rights as evidenced in the constitution of Iran following the Iranian revolution. All of this complexity within Islamic sects means that attitudes toward women cannot be based strictly on the relative status of Sunni or Shias in a particular country (In Meyer, Rizzo & Ali, 1998). In Arab nations, religious sect also connotes status. Membership in either the Shia or Sunni sect corresponds to majority/minority status in a nation and to connections with national political elites (Ayubi, 1992). In Kuwait, Sunni make up 70% of the Muslim population and historically have been and currently are the elite (Kozlowski, 1991), and not necessarily opposed to including women in political life (In Meyer, Rizzo & Ali, 1998).

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The responses of Islamic scholars to these debates have been diverse. Meyer et al., (1998) argue that Arab writers are divided over whether women's status is tied to Islam or to misinterpretations of Islam (al-'Aqqad, 1971; al-Sa'id, 1977; Mernissi, 1975; El-Saadawi, 1982; cited in Meyer et al., 1998). On the other hand, Barakat (1993) points out that the subordination of women is more closely associated with the prevailing social order and its division of labour, ownership patterns, and production processes than with cultural or religious tendencies. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a group of Muslim theologians, notably in India and Egypt, advanced a modernist interpretation of the Quran, arriving at an Islamic feminist concept of gender relations. These scholars championed women's rights to education and involvement in social affairs, questioned the existing restrictions on women, criticized men's attitudes and behavior toward women, and rejected polygamy and seclusion (Moaddel, 1998). Reformers like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh in Egypt, and Sayyid Ahman Khan and Muhammad Iqbal in South Asia have attempted to bridge the gap between the more isolationist positions of religious leaders and Western secular Muslim modernists (Esposito, 1998). According to Moaddel (1998), while scholar Qasim Amin pioneered Islamic feminism, Amin's Tahrir al-mar'a spearheaded one of the most systematic efforts to defend the compatibility of Islam with modern views on women. Amin's theoretical position espoused a total interdependence between the traditions of a nation and its level of civilization and knowledge. Since tradition is one of the most important organizing principles of society, Amin argues that the treatment of women has been directly related to varying levels of civilization. In contrast, the counter-feminism of Islamic fundamentalism attacks the West for its cultural decadence and sexual promiscuity. As it concerns women, Islamic fundamentalist reasoning derives its legitimacy as much from Islam as from anti-imperialist and anticolonialist ideologies that portray the West as a decadent culture. Thus, efforts to redene women's roles are often seen as an extension of Western efforts for or toward cultural domination. Many Arabs insist that economic and cultural colonialism has replaced political colonialism all the more reason to adhere to indigenous culture and tradition. Consequently, the debate on women's roles in the Arab world also concerns the role of Islam in the state, and is closely tied to the Arab search for political independence, economic self-reliance, and authentic identity (Hijab, 1998). Further, it may be argued that, in a context where such an ideology is dominant, the fundamentalist groups can advance their own notion of gender hierarchy more easily than in a pluralistic and democratic environment (Addi, 1992; Butterworth, 1992; Huntington, 1993; Miller, 1994; Ooman, 1994). Among the rights guranteed for women by Islam are the right to life, to education, to conduct business, to inherit, to maintain property and custody of children, and to keep their names.4 Yet, although these rights have been afrmed, social customs continue to
4 Arab nations provide equal political rights for Arab women who can vote and stand for election in all the Arab countries that have parliaments. Because the legislation has been developed independently, there is a wide range in interpretation. While Tunisia has almost achieved equality between men and women within the Islamic framework, Egyptian law provides for "equivalence" rather than equality. In Bahrain, which has not passed a state law regulating family relations, the disposition of legal opinion has been delegated to the judges to interpret the sharia directly as they see t. Egypt is one of the Arab countries that has ratied the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the most far-reaching international instrument providing for equality between men and women. In appreciation of their role during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1991, the Emir promised to give women more political rights. On May 16,1999, Kuwait's cabinet gave women the right to vote and run for Parliament (The Columbus Dispatch, p. 4 A).

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dominate, rendering the rights unavailable. Such social customs include arranged marriages, dowry, lack of equal treatment of wives in polygamous marriages, and the abuse of the privilege of divorce. Compared with either their wealthier and better educated compatriots or with Western women, most Middle Eastern women lack freedom of choice regarding basic life decisions (Beck and Keddie, 1978).5 The tension between tradition and modernity is nowhere more evident than in the contradictory paths pursued with regard to women's role and emancipation. In earlier centuries, women could become willing participants in a movement whose essential feature is their subjugation in a religiously sanctioned fundamentalist state. But during the twentieth century, signicant changes have occurred in the lives of many Muslim women. Inuenced by the West and by Islamic modernism, legal reforms and educational and employment opportunities have altered and broadened women's role in society (Esposito, 1998), but only for a relatively small percentage of women. Moreover, such advances vary greatly from one region of the Muslim world to another and often from urban to rural settings (Faour, 1993; Esposito, 1998). KUWAITI WOMEN: DURING THE OCCUPATION AND AFTERMATH Methodology In March 1999, 20 Kuwaiti middle class women between the ages of 40 and 50 years of age were interviewed by authors-trained research assistants with the purpose of exploring women's status and the roles women played during and after the Iraqi occupation. The interviewees were selected utilizing a snowball technique. The interviews were conducted at the women's homes and work places, utilizing a personal interview schedule developed by the researchers. The schedule contained seven open-ended questions, and the interviews were conducted in the Arabic language. The interview questions focused on the women's roles, operationalized and examined through role changes in participation in organizations and associations outside the home; leadership positions in organizations and/or in government (political participation) available to them during the occupation; the nature of the work that they performed during the occupation; types of jobs that they were allowed to perform from which they
5 The indigenous population is divided into three unequal categories and only a fraction of the Kuwaiti population enjoys the practice of full political rights. In 1963, when the rst Parliament was inaugurated, women protested the withholding of their political rights. That same year, they formed their rst associations, the Arab Women's Development Society (AWDS), to focus on the education and development of all women. Meanwhile, women of wealthy merchant families formed The Cultural and Social Society, renamed the Women's Cultural And Social Society (WCSS) in 1966. Both of these organizations took a pro-suffrage stand. AWDS joined the Arab Feminist Union and organized the rst Kuwaiti Women's Conference in 1971. From 1974 to 1977, the two women's organizations combined forces in creating the Kuwait Women's Union to further women's rights. With the same agenda, the Girls Club was established in 1976. The year 1980 witnessed the birth of Islamic women's organizations in Kuwait. A typical example of these organizations is Bayader al-Salam, a su-type organization founded in 1981. In 1982, while the Islamic Care Society (ICS) broadcast the importance of a domestic-centered existence for women, The Girls Club supported Arab nationalist men running for election, expecting in return that successful candidates would support the women's suffrage cause. The history of women's societies and associations from the 1960s through the 1980s reveals the difculties of women to form a united front. By 1990, still divided as "secularists" and Islamists, women remained far from achieving a broad gender solidarity around the common cause of voting rights. Yet, during the seven-month Iraqi occupation, women would forge the gender solidarity that until then had eluded them.

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had been or are traditionally excluded; opportunities for training and education; opportunities to gather and to organize; decision-making activities outside the home; and changes in the way(s) that they perceived themselves. The researchers also asked why they thought those changes took place; when and why they thought they lost or furthered their gains (whichever was the case); and whether they feel any differently now. Variables explored also included changes in power structure within the household (such as changes in the distribution of housework, hierarchy/position within the home, decision making, nancial responsibility, and discipline of children). Although most of the categories of variables were developed through the operationalization of the variables prior to data collection, other categories emerged during the interviews. Throughout the Occupation After Iraqi troops crossed the border into Kuwait in 2 August 1990, women from all socioeconomic classes and backgrounds were at the centre of the seven-month sustained resistance.6 From day one of the occupation, all of the respondents to this study reported doing something positive for the country. For example, it was women who overtly mobilized community opposition. The rst issue of the underground resistance paper, al-Kuwaitiya (The Kuwaiti Woman), was produced by women, and women took charge of its underground circulation. Women also formed part of the underground armed resistance, passing weapons and ammunition through checkpoints. They trained in hand-to-hand combat and transported and planted explosives. Many women became POWs and martyrs. In the face of the crisis, women didn't need lessons in political awareness; they spontaneously participated in the struggle for liberation. The rst collective action of women was a political statement in defense of their nation and its sovereignty. Three days after the invasion, women organized and participated in a demonstration that signaled the appearance of a new public woman. They sought shelter in the mosque (normally an exclusively male site), marched, made videos of their demonstration and sent them to the government in exile, and printed and distributed yers disavowing the occupation, even though `Distribution of leaets [if caught] meant the death penalty to us.' Women also created one of the rst resistance groups abroad, the Women's Joint Resistance Committe in Cairo. The abbaya (long gown and head cover) that had historically rendered women anonymous, hiding their sexual attributes, now facilitated the distribution of concealed weapons and information, and became a symbol of national cohesion. Class distinctions, together with differences in ancestral origins or differences between Sunnis and Shias, disappeared in the defense of an endangered Kuwaiti identity. Privileges of class were retracted, and customary male protective roles were invisible or absent. Since Kuwaiti government employees and military personnel especially those who worked for the Defense Ministry and the Youth, perceived as potential members of resistance groups lived in hiding for fear of being arrested, women became more visible, and in many ways the protectors of men. In one of the respondent's words: `Men worked undercover and we
6 Women went into the streets to do political work and moved around the city tending to the needs of the community and the nation. Defense of the nation and the people legitimized all behaviors and normal rules, and gender conventions were suspended. Women's performance exposed fallacies of conventional gender ideology and contradictions. As Badran (1998) has stated, "abnormal as normal" freed women to perform as citizens and to prove their abilities.

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were in the front. Usually myself or the girls would meet the Iraqi soldiers; and they could get violent with us women.' Men who distributed money to support the families were at a great risk, because this money came from the Kuwaiti government in exile. Such men, mostly employers of either the Ministry of Defense or the Ministry of Interior, would bring money into the country and distribute it primarily to women who would then distribute it to the families. The distribution of either Iraqi or Kuwaiti money, if detected, was an act that also meant death, for culpable women as well as men. Most of the respondents also reported that women helped hide ofcial documents that belonged to the government (i.e., Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Telecommunication). Further, women were central to the task of meeting community needs, including food, water, housing, health, medicine, and the care of the young and old. Households were run as shelters and asylums. Women took in orphans, the sick, and the disabled; they aided armed resistance ghters; and they cared for the mentally impaired people who remained in institutions. Women prepared shelters in the basements of their houses and stocked them with food, water and homemade gas masks. They made routine visits to their relatives and others who were incarcerated, organized buses to take women to visit relatives in prisons, and took care of prisoners of war. They also exchanged material goods (i.e., VCRs, TVs) with Iraqi troops for the release of Kuwaiti prisoners. Men and women alike felt `lost' during occupation, as they did not have the accustomed control over their lives. Ironically, although women did not fear the Iraqi soldiers as much as men did, and felt that they had more control over their lives than men did, this control could not be fully exercised. Traditionally, Kuwaiti women cannot make decisions or leave the home without their men's permission and, for most women, this did not change during the occupation. Respondents mentioned that during the occupation, the families also lost control over their children. Schools and all other formal institutions were closed and routine activities were altered. `Children did not have to go to sleep early and get up early; . . . they did not have to do any homework; . . . it is hard to discipline children in times of total chaos.' However, respondents emphasized that, during the crisis, women largely controlled the management of household responsibilities. `They even drove the cars while their men were sitting beside them.' A respondent who is related to the royal family mentioned that, before the occupation, `I did not play either a traditional household or professional role.' She added: `I was only administrating the house and the care of the children. During the invasion, however, I was with no maids or nannies, and I had to cook, clean, and wash the dishes.' Non-traditional roles that respondents reported playing throughout the occupation can be summarized as follows: (i) Serving resistance groups and military men who were hiding; (ii) buying food from foreign people from allied countries; (iii) Distributing pamphlets that would encourage Kuwaitis to stay in the country and discourage the Iraqi army from staying, (iv) hiding allied people in their houses, an action against traditions to keep strange men under a woman's protection; (v) practising volunteer work, (vi) organizing supply, propaganda, and co-op committees; (vii) participating in protest demonstrations; (viii) distributing yers and the al-Kuwaitiya, as well as money to families; (ix) forming part of the armed forces; (x) Giving their lives in defense of their country. As one respondent stated, `we played many contradictory roles; roles that we never thought of doing before the occupation.'
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The Aftermath In the immediate aftermath of liberation, women wished to maintain the newfound gender consciousness experienced under occupation and resistance. In words used by al-Fodari to report similar ndings, `The attitude of women toward themselves changed. They [thought] of themselves as different persons. They found many things inside themselves they had never seen before' (in Badran, 1998, p.199) and they wished to direct this enhanced gender consciousness toward building post-liberation Kuwait. After national liberation, women shed their abbayas in favour of Westernized dress while men resumed their dishdasha, once again asserting by their dress their traditional authority along with their nationality. Women expressed concerns about losing ground in gender equality experienced during occupation, but some also stressed that changes in gender roles have in some ways been maintained. The sometimes contradictory verbalization about gains and losses reects not only different perceptions and denitions of gender roles, but also some of the women's feelings of ambivalence. The informal institution of the women's diwaniya7 was one of the rst activities to resume after liberation, and with it, the cause of women's political rights. However, while women were skillful in utilizing their resistance experience to advance their call for political rights, they were unable to redirect the practical and organizational skills they had gained during resistance to the post-occupation scenario. According to Badran (1998), this state of affairs can be explained by two fundamental problems women faced. First, the women's associations founded in the 1960s and 70s were anachronistic by the 1990s, reecting class and kin divisions of their pre-invasion history. The second problem was the lack of serious support from men. Most of the respondents expressed that, after the liberation, concern for others undergoing similar situations became a signicant factor in their lives. A respondent stated that: `Volunteer work became a holy thing to me. Before the occupation it was civilized work; nothing more than that.' As another respondent put it: `It is a new value for us to be concerned about other people who are involved in wars and crises, and I mean civilians as in Somalia and Bosnia. We went there to help those people, especially children, women, and the elderly.' Respondents also mentioned that women developed a strong tendency to become more organized during local crises. For instance, women from the Women Cultural Association (WCA) organized committees to help those who were affected by the ood that occurred in Kuwait in 1997. Generally speaking, women became more active and more effective in the development of their communities and of their society. Those who had had active social roles before the occupation asserted that their roles expanded during that period, and the circle of their activities has spread even more after the liberation. Participation by these women has encouraged other Kuwaiti women to become more active in the reconstruction of the Kuwaiti society. Men's coalitions, such as the Democratic Platform and the Constitution Movement, became open to women members after the liberation. As one women put it, `before the occupation there were two women's societies [associations] and now, after liberation, there are ve'. Many of the POWs'
7 Diwaniya is an informal site of political debate, where citizens meet to discuss political issues and questions. "Diwaniya is more than a social gathering. The diwaniya is an institution in which personal relationships are maintained and strengthened, business is conducted, and politics are discussed" (Ali, 1989).

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female family members became active by participating in meetings, seminars, and conferences to show support for the POWs' case after the liberation. As a result of the occupation, respondents said that it had become vivid to them that women's social roles are as important as their political roles. `Social roles entail making people aware of social diseases such as polygamy, divorce, drug use, and disasters.' `Fighting such social diseases [problems] is a signicant role that Kuwaiti women could play.' However, one of the respondents stated: `I feel frustrated because the government (nowadays) strongly encourages women to retire early (after 15 years of work), while they give men a longer time to work (25 years).' Ultimately, it is up to the male worker to decide when to retire, but retirement in Kuwait is not compulsory for neither women or men. Respondents believe that women should participate in decision-making, broadly conceived (i.e., when it involves society and family). Although it was not long after the liberation before class, kin, ethnic, sectarian, and gender divisions resurfaced, all respondents said that all such categories of discrimination should be considered obsolete. Discrimination, they argue, should be based on work and achievement. Respondents also reported a strong belief that men and women should be treated equally. One respondent voiced concern and awareness about the need for women's education and training, mentioning that: `The level of education or the diploma is very important especially when you lose your country. The occupation showed us how important is your level of education and training as a passport to live and work in another country.' All respondents stated that Kuwaiti women proved their ability to confront and overcome the difculties of the occupation and the war, and became stronger as a result of the roles that they played during that period. Yet such gains appear to have been shortlived. A respondent stated: `As a result of the occupation we women learned how to organize ourselves and how to maneuver politically. We learned how to be brave and face the danger. All this is over now after the liberation. Barriers between men and women are still existing. The doors are now closed on my face. For this reason, I submitted my resignation (to a position) in the Ministry [of Foreign Affairs].' Nevertheless, despite some setbacks, women's commitment to political participation is reected today in their attendance at election sites, a new phenomenon in Kuwaiti society, since such sites had existed only for men prior to the invasion. And the number of Kuwaiti women who are actively engaged in the political process is increasing, especially since the Amir Decree on the Kuwaiti women's political rights. One respondent mentioned that she will run for assembly election in year 2003 if the Decree becomes a law. She added: `Women know about women's problems more than men do. Although high positions are given more to men than to women, women work so hard in their jobs that their achievements surpass those of men. Women, however, still cannot ask to be promoted in their jobs.' Not all Kuwaiti women are dejected at the reversals in gender equity. One of the respondents, for instance, insisted that following liberation women should go back to their traditional female roles. She alleges that woman cannot play both roles inside and outside the home. `But for those who could manage both roles,' she claries, `they can continue with their role outside home.' She adds: `I believe [however] woman's main role is in the home, to take care of the house and the children, and to protect her family and children from undermining and deviancy. This is what our Islamic religion asks us to do.' Interestingly, this woman is married and works outside her home. Such adherence to the tenets of Islam is clear in the sentiments expressed by a number of women. Kuwaiti women perceive the roles that they played during the war as holy
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because they were following religious rules. All respondents expressed the belief that women's roles during the occupation in no way contradicted the prevailing religious expectations. On the contrary, they matched religious rules, since they were concerned with serving the country, a value stronger than traditions. Respondents mentioned that women's roles during the occupation were `ok' because they were justied by the war. As one respondent puts it; `During war, religion is stronger than tradition, and religion insists on defending your country by all means.' In Kuwait society, however, traditions can become stronger than religion. For example, joining the armed forces or police force is prohibited for women, because Islam decrees that women should not be employed in an occupation or a profession that demands brute strength. Although Kuwaiti women fought against the Iraqi forces during the occupation and the war, such professions were only for men before the occupation and remain only for men after liberation. Yet traditionally, `feminine' roles are often gloried by both sexes. One of the respondents mentioned that before the discovery of oil, women in Kuwait `used to have a great role [in society]. Before the oil era, Kuwaiti people used to depend on diving under water looking for pearls. Men used to go to the Persian Gulf and other closeby seas to look for pearls. These journeys took them almost six months, while their wives stayed behind. It was the women who were totally responsible for the home and the children.' As another woman stated: `Women have had the ability of making decisions since long time ago. The Amiri's issuing of the Decree of women's political rights, although late, completes the picture.' Although respondents are frustrated that the Amiri Decree came `sort of late,' they feel that women's situation will be better if the Decree is approved by the assembly. One respondent added: `We the people who belong to the royal family, however, are deprived further from our political rights in that we are not allowed to be assembly candidates. I personally like to get my legal rights. I mean political rights.' In sum, since 1992 when the war ended, the opportunities for women have diminished, and there is a corresponding tendency to return to pre-war gender roles. The main loss that women experienced was, as summarized by one of the interviewees, the freedom to make decisions political decisions. The biggest disappointment for women after the war was her `denial to participate in political life'. Although some of the respondents argue that some of the changes have been maintained, liberated women whose perceptions of themselves changed so dramatically during the occupation now face the challenge of how to consolidate, sustain, or increase the advances that they gained during the conditions of war. CONCLUSIONS More time is needed to permit an unclouded and denitive view of the effects of the Gulf War on the Kuwait nation (Faour, 1993). Future progress will depend on the interaction of the pressures from both internal sources and from Western countries, and the resistance from conservatives and from neighboring Saudi Arabia (Nath, 1978).8 Women who were the backbone of the resistance during the Iraqi occupation linked their resilient self8 The role Saudi Arabia played in the liberation of Kuwait and its role in the politics of the region exerts its own pressure. Saudi Arabia, which gives no pretense to be a democratic system, and which has a repressive feudal attitude toward women, is opposed to the enfranchisement of women in neighboring Kuwait (Badran, 1998).

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sufciency and community activism to the early heritage of pre-modern Kuwait, where they had undertaken an integral role in the political economy. In post-liberation Kuwait, patriarchal gender ideology, regional politics, and an Islamist threat enabled a pre-invasion model of state and society to be reinstalled. Tradition, religion, and law have kept women oppressed (Underwood, 1991). In some cases, war can open up new areas to women where they are allowed to assume the work and decision-making responsibilities of the absent men. However, while in some cases these changes are accepted and become integrated into the society (as, for example, in the Eritrean and Tigrayan situations), it is more often the case that women's position in relation to men is unchanged, or little changed, once the men return home. The Kuwaiti idea of `getting back to basics' reminds the writers of the United States after World War II, when women who had worked in defence industries were encouraged to leave their jobs and go home to tend their husbands and children, to help restore the family traditions upset by war, and, as a consequence, to reinstate gender disparities. Women must struggle hard to hold on to their new-found skill, responsibilities, and wider roles within the community (Wallace and March, 1991). Conict between differing cultural standards might be explained not by appealing to incommensurability of values or culture, but by stressing the fact that outsiders and insiders alike often misunderstand traditions (Lawrence, 1994). An-Na'im's (1990) feminist theological arguments serve to illustrate that the strategy of internal critique is a powerful strategy to address women's status. Recent developments in some Islamic political communities suggest that internal critique is emerging as a signicant phenomenon even beyond the domain of feminist discourse (Perry, 1997). According to Perry, we `cannot know how far moral discourse can go in resolving particular disagreements between or among particular persons from different cultures until it is tried' (p.497). In a practical sense, in An-Na'im's (1987) view, `human rights advocates in the Muslim world must work within the framework of Islam to be effective . . . Human rights advocates in the Muslim world should struggle to have their interpretations of the relevant tests adopted as the new Islamic scriptural imperatives for the contemporary world' (p.392). Although the gender equity question is a central question everywhere, feminism has many faces in the Middle East. Women are regrouping and utilizing a variety of methods to achieve goals of gender parity, dignity, and public power, goals that have been challenged by patriarchal traditions. Middle Eastern women are now creating something new and powerful out of bits and pieces of Western ideas and Middle Eastern traditions. In their struggles for legal and economic equality, they stress the viability of the family group, a sense of responsibility to the wider group, the importance of religious values, combining elements of both East and West to develop several feminist ideologies. (1998), a variety of conditions are necessary to generate According to Cagan and Julia and sustain women's advancement towards gender equality. First, there must be a strong ideological commitment by women to breaking down traditional gender roles. Second, this commitment requires continuous education, assertiveness, and consciousness-raising efforts by women to support self-condence and prevent back-sliding. Third, efforts to promote women's development must be materially grounded in the provision of societal services that reduce women's burden of responsibilities that prevent their active participation in public life. Fourth, women need specic economic projects that offer training, access to credit, and marketable skills so that they may reduce their economic dependence on men. Finally, women must develop strong leaders and independent political organizations that they control and in which they can actively participate. That
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is, they must exercise political power to institutionalize the changed economic and social practices that they plan to bring about. This is where internal critique becomes invaluable (Yearley, 1993). The Western feminist movement has traditionally seemed to require a single denition for all women, i.e., a universalistic ideology. Femininity and masculinity are not biological, but are socially constructed roles that can and often do change in response to changing social and economic circumstances. However, in Kuwait, Islamic women begin with the assumption that the possibility of gender equality already exists in the Quran itself. The problem, as they see it, is malpractice or misunderstanding of the sacred text. For these Muslim women, the rst goal of a feminist movement for the Islamic community is to re-evaluate and re-understand the sacred text, and for women to be involved in the process. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 11th International Symposium of the Inter-University Consortium for International Social Development, Cape Town, South Africa, July 1999. REFERENCES
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