I understand the point that Chenoa is making, about countries not being educated about the democratic way of participating in elections. But I must ask, why would anyone want the right to vote if they have not been educated about the process? What I realized, is that women in the United States took the initiative to learn about the process and, as we all hope, made an educated decision whether it be religious or politically based. We cannot use the excuse of citizens not understanding the system for their lack of judgment.
I realized there are some similarities between Islam and the United States, in regards to women's suffrage. As stated in the article, "Islam and Women's Suffrage," "they have argued that this hadith does not deny women the right to vote." Women in the United States also challenged legal documents because they too did not exclude the right to vote to women, but to persons who were not landowners. In this situation, particularly in the West, women who owned property were perceived as "more justifiable for women to participate in the government (41)." This might have been because women showed a sense of holding their own and contributing to society in a big way at the time.
It seems as though Kuwait and the United States have opposing reasons for refusing women's suffrage. In, "Women's Rights in Kuwait," it states that "men and women, were 'quiescent and inactive' about politics mainly because Kuwait, an oil-rich welfare state, showers them with benefits." Women in the United States were not as fortunate and the women in Kuwait. Most did not have jobs nor were they receiving a great amount of government money to support their way of life. From this article, it seems as though women receiving the right to vote was not as much of an accomplishment. It is a way to participate in the way the government is run, but it does not seem as though they would have much of an impact; women in Kuwait had more rights before they received the right to vote than Islamic women and women from the United States. How will their vote change their nation to recognize women as equals?