Woman in Cabinet

last updated 8 January 2015

Kuwait City, Kuwait

Kuwait got its first female Cabinet member this week when the government appointed Massouma al-Mubarak as minister for planning and development. Mubarak, 54, is a political science professor and newspaper columnist, with a doctorate in international relations from the University of Denver. “This honor is not bestowed on my person,” al-Mubarak said, “but on every woman who fought to prove that Kuwaiti women are capable.” Women won the right to vote in Kuwait just last month, too late for them to participate in the recent elections. But Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah promised then that he would add a woman to the government.