A Study of Political Participation of Women in the South Persian Gulf Muslim Countries According to the Political Obligation Theory

Despite the progress made in other parts of the region, developments in political participation of women have been limited in the conservative Arab countries particularly the Muslim countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, i.e. the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In most of these countries, women even are not considered as individuals enjoying social and human rights. Many scholars maintain that this problem arises from the traditional nature of these societies with their unique tribal culture. But this paper considers the political obligation that is the obligation imposed on the members because of membership in a polity as these obligations differ from a society to another as the root cause of the problem. Justice, respect for rights and consent as the major indicators of political obligation and religiosity, family-centrism and patrimonial political culture as the main elements of the subjectivity culture play a crucial role in this situation. On this token, this paper seeks to show that the political obligation in the GCC countries has failed to contribute to the creation of political participation of women and is per se a fundamental factor for lack of participation.