Women's Citizenship Rights: Obstacles and Primary Steps in the Persian Gulf Sheikdoms

Citizenship rights constitute one of the most important elements of democracy. The level of citizenship rights will vary in countries depending on the type of political system, political culture and the strength or weakness of civil society. In the Persian Gulf Sheikdoms, the interval between women’s and men’s rights is evidently significant, as women are regarded as the second degree citizens. In spite of the progress made in the recent decade in promoting women’s citizenship rights particularly in Kuwait, a significant portion of the obstacles notably concerning political rights have persisted. In this article, the author seeks to answer the question, using a political sociology approach, what are the most serious political, social, and cultural obstacles to the advancement of women’s citizenship rights in the Persian Gulf region? The most important hypotheses or answers include the monarchical patrimonial government structure, excessive weakness of civic institutions, patriarchy, tribalism and deep-rooted subjective culture, internalization of conservative beliefs in women and objection of conservative Ulema to granting citizenship rights to women.