Women's Suffrage in Kuwait

The Emir of Kuwait has called for giving women the right to vote. He does that fairly often; however, because the Parliament actually matters somewhat in Kuwait, conservatives have been able to block the measure, using it as a banner issue similar to gay marriage for conservatives in the United States. The linked article suggests that the bill may get through this time, due to support the monarchy gained in the last Parliamentary elections. With both the king and crown prince aging rapidly, I suspect the government wants to provide itself with a firm base of support that will allow them to hold power after whatever realignments follow the emir's death. One way of doing this is to co-opt the liberal social agenda, making feminists and secularists wary of weakening the power of a friendly monarchy by pushing too hard for systemic reform.