In Bahrain Election, Women Run, Women Vote and Women Lose

 Safat Aysar, emerging from a polling station after casting her ballot in the first elections here in 
which women could participate as both candidates and voters, ticked off the reasons she finds 
male candidates far superior. 

"Men just use their brains better, they know more about what is going on in the world," 
said Mrs. Aysar, a 40-year-old hospital worker draped from head to toe in black so that only 
her eyes showed behind gold-rimmed glasses. 

"In lots of situations women are overpowered by their emotions," she added.
The small island nation of Bahrain took a tentative step toward democracy with municipal elections
last month. 

The vote was viewed as a kind of dry run not only for its first parliamentary elections in nearly three decades 
in October, but also for whether democracy can take hold anywhere in the Arab world.

The results were telling. Candidates affiliated with Islamic organizations swept all 50 seats 
on the five councils, asserting their ascendancy in politics throughout the region. 

All 31women running in a field of more than 300 candidates lost. 

In much of the Arab world, repressive states are grappling with how to open political 
systems that have fostered growing alienation, especially among young people. 

But the problem has been that popular anger, once channeled into the ballot box, 
tends to bolster Islamic groups, which are often well organized.

Here in Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa ai-Khalifa announced a new constitution in February 
that gave women the right to vote and run for office. 

By introducing minimal public participation, he has halted six years of low-grade violence 
spearheaded by Shiite Muslim groups demanding a voice in running Bahrain.

"Everyone welcomed the step of giving women the right to vote, but when it comes to the 
elections, it's different " said Bahiya al-Jishi, a women who has served in prominent government 
positions for years. 

"Our society is still traditional, patriarchical. It gives you a picture of who dominates life here."

Indeed, voting for a man was turned into a religious duty in many neighborhoods.

"One of the important clerics showed up in my district with a competing candidate and told 
everyone that under Islam; they had to vote for this man because he follows the laws of Islam 
closely," said Safiya Assad, a 47-year-old accountant. 

"After that, people no longer weighed who was the best candidate; they did what they were told by
the cleric."

Mrs. Assad, who wears a head scarf, was criticized for having too bright a shade of red lipstick 
and showing a httle bit of hair on her campaign posters. 

In general, unveiled women fared badly: they found mustaches and beards painted on their
posters. 

But not even being fully veiled served as immunity. 

Bahiya al-Ataawi, a kindergarten teacher in her 40's, wears the most conservative 
dress possible, with only her eyes showing. "I got telephone calls every day telling me that I 
should withdraw," she said.

"Some of them said that even just my eyes were too alluring." Female candidates had problems 
from the outset, especially in meeting voters in a society that is largely segregated by sex
Saba al-Asfour, running for a seat from a cluster of small, poorer villages, invited constituents 
to her house. Nobody showed. 

Finally she erected a tent, moving it every couple of days to try to capture new audiences. 

During an online chat with voters, however, one man said he considered visiting the 
tent of a women a sin.

"I heard so many times, `You are probably the best candidate, but the problem is that you are a 
women,' " Mrs. Asfour said.

Bahraini women are far freer than women in Saudi Arabia, who are not allowed even to 
drive. Women can also vote in Qatar, but not in the United Arab Emirates or Kuwait.

But Bahraini women face social problems, like the inability to begin divorce proceedings 
without considerable difficulty. 

As Mrs. Jishi, the former government official, put it, "If the religious people dominate in the 
Parliament, then you know what will happen to women - nobody will support women's issues."