Exciting news out of the Middle East yesterday as four women were elected to the previously all-male Kuwaiti parliament! From Al-Jazeera:

“The vote on Saturday was the third in just under three years after Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah dissolved the outgoing parliament in March following a standoff between MPs and the government.

Kuwaitis voted 21 new members into the 50-seat parliament and reduced Sunni Muslim groups to a minority as the country grappled with political turmoil that has frozen the country’s economy.

Massuma al-Mubarak, one of the four women elected, was first by a large margin among the 10 top positions elected to the parliament from her district.

She also became the country’s first female cabinet minister.”

Last year at this time women came up empty handed in the parliamentary elections even though there were 27 women in the running.