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With so much attention focused on democratization in the Middle East, it was surprising that landmark reform in Kuwait was largely ignored. In just two months, Kuwaiti women were granted the right to vote and run for office, two women were appointed to the Municipal Council and a woman was named the country’s first female Cabinet minister.

While women have the vote in the majority of countries in the Middle East, Kuwait’s reform could encourage the expanding of democratic values beyond women’s suffrage in other countries in the region. The expansion of women’s rights and opportunities in Kuwait also suggests that successful reform efforts are usually slow-paced, homegrown and distinctive.

The long struggle for women’s suffrage sets Kuwait apart from other countries in the region where reforms are usually top-down, with the leaders - not the public - taking the decision to grant women their political rights. Kuwait’s action contrasts with Jordan, for example, where women gained their rights through royal decree.

Women’s rights activists in Kuwait have argued since 1962 that the election law denying women the right to vote contravenes the constitution, which is billed as egalitarian. Kuwait’s domestic women’s movement gained a powerful ally after the 1991 liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. US pressure for democratic reform led to the reconvening of the National Assembly and the Emir’s public support for women’s suffrage.

Despite that powerful support, both supporters and opponents of women’s rights insisted on dealing with the issue through parliamentary debate. Even women’s rights activists opposed letting the Emir unilaterally change the election law. In 1999, the National Assembly rejected a royal decree in support of women’s suffrage, thus rejecting executive intervention in the legislative process.

Instead, they chose to follow Kuwaiti law and debate women’s political rights in the constitutionally-sanctioned parliament. Elected representatives were determined that parliament control the reform process. Though that approach delayed women getting the right to vote, it made the May 16, 2005 decision more legitimate in the eyes of Kuwaitis.

The dramatic speeches, political bargaining and coalition-building that led to the May 16 decision are familiar to democratic assemblies the world over. But some aspects of that process were distinctively Kuwaiti and defy “western” labels. Kuwaiti liberal forces that support women’s suffrage cannot be equated with secular forces. Liberals and Shi‘ite religious members formed a coalition to support women’s rights, reflecting their shared minority status.

Women’s activists in Kuwait are distinctive and reflect Kuwait’s conservative political culture with their use of religious rhetoric. The suffrage bill itself contains an elastic clause that women voters and politicians must abide by Islamic law. Rather than challenge the legitimacy of introducing religion into a debate of political rights, Kuwaiti supporters of universal suffrage sought religious authority. The head of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Mohammad al-Sager, quoted religious fatwas that stated there is no verse of the Quran prohibiting women from participating in political life and noted during parliamentary debate that women already have full political rights in most Muslim countries.

Perhaps no one represents the Kuwaiti vision of equal rights and liberalism better than Dr. Massoumah Al-Mubarak, recently appointed Minister of State for Administrative Development Affairs and Planning — the country’s first female minister. Dr. Al-Mubarak holds a Ph.D. in international relations, has taught political science at Kuwait University, agitated for women’s rights in Kuwait for decades and is a Shi‘ite Muslim who wears modest Islamic dress, including the traditional headscarf.

While critics complain of the slow pace of reform, now that women have gained their rights the government appears eager to show its support. Realizing the May 16 decision would not give women enough time to organize and register for municipal elections, the government appointed two women to the Municipal Council. Less than a month later, the Prime Minister announced Dr. Al-Mubarak’s appointment, placing Kuwait in a small group of countries in the region that have entrusted important ministries to women. Within a week of gaining their rights, five Kuwaiti women announced their intention to run for office and women’s groups refocused their activism to encourage women to register and vote in the next parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for 2007.

It is not only Kuwait’s women who are adjusting to the new reality. Both conservative and liberal male members of parliament are already shifting their appeal to potential women voters. They realize women voters may focus on different political issues, from health care and discrimination to education and other social issues.

Kuwaiti parliamentarians who support women’s rights acknowledge that peer pressure from other Muslim countries with universal suffrage impacted their vote. In speeches, they noted that lagging on women’s rights was embarrassing for a country that could boast being the only Arab Gulf state with a fully elected parliament. Now, Kuwaiti reforms are likely to influence other countries in the region.

Following Kuwait’s vote for women’s rights, a member of Saudi Arabia’s all-male Shura Council introduced a debate over allowing Saudi women to drive. Saudi Arabia’s government has also suggested women will be permitted to vote the next time the country holds municipal elections. Saudi Arabia is now the only Arab country where women do not have the right to vote. (The U.A.E. is an exception because it does not have elections.)

Reform in Kuwait may have been slow-paced — often seen as too slow by western measures — but that does not diminish the significance of what Kuwaiti women have achieved. As Kuwait moves beyond universal suffrage with the landmark appointment of Dr. Al-Mubarak, the unique characteristics of Kuwaiti reform — its deliberate pace, the strength of the domestic women’s movement, and the fact that the entire reform process reflects Kuwait’s social and political culture — may make it more legitimate, and ultimately, more sustainable.