Stories of Democracy: Politics and Society in Contemporary Kuwait

Mary Ann Tétreault

Columbia University Press

2000

Acknowledgments

 

I have worked on this book for ten years, ever since I began writing what is now chapter 3 during my Fulbright semester in Kuwait. It is impossible to make an exhaustive list of everyone who took time from a busy life to help me with this project, so I will mention just a few whose contributions to this work were extraordinary and indispensable. Although errors surely remain, this manuscript has been both enriched and enlivened by the assistance of these generous people, along with the hundreds of others whose names are not mentioned here.

Intellectual interchange is crucial to scholarship, and I have been blessed by the willingness of Kuwaiti colleagues to engage with my ideas and interpretations of events. I would like especially to thank sociologist and sometime-collaborator Haya al-Mughni, with whom I have worked for five years on a number of articles on gender politics in Kuwait. Other intellectual companions include economists Eqbal al-Rahmani and Yousef al-Ibrahim; engineers `Eisa bu Yabis, `Khaled Buhamrah, and Sara Akbar; linguist Sa`d al-`Ajmi; sociologist Khaldoun al-Naqeeb; and political scientists Ghanim al-Najjar, Ma`suma al-Mubarak, Saif `Abbas `Abdulla, Shafeeq Ghabra, and Shamlan al-`Eisa. Philosopher Ahmad al-Rub`i straddles the categories of academic and political and therefore I put him here as a bridge between the two. Other “political” Kuwaitis whose generosity has been invaluable include `Abdullah Nibari, Ahmad Baqr, Hamad al-Jou`an, Jasim al-Qatami, and Saleh al-Hashem.

Many other Kuwaitis also were very generous with their time, expertise, and their professional and associational networks. They include `Abd al-Wahhab al-Wazzan, Adela al-Sayer, Ahmad al-Tamimi, `Ali Murad, Buthaina al-Muqahawe, `Eisa al-Serraf, Fawzi Mossad al-Saleh, Jasim al-Sa`doun, Khaled `Ali al-Attar, Khouloud al-Feeli, Lidia Qattan, Lubna Saif `Abbas `Abdulla, Nihaya al-Dashti, Mohammad al-Jasim, Muna al-Musa, Nader Sultan, Sa`ud al-`Eneizi, Suleiman al-Mutawa, and Waleed Hadeed.

Expatriates like me who were Kuwait residents during one or more of my visits also contributed in various ways to this volume. They include `Ali Attiga, `Usama Jamali, Jill Nanson, Hana, Shereen, and Ma`moun al-Rashy, Hilary Shadroui, Kristin Stilt, Ziad Taky, George Tomeh, John Watson, and `Abd al-`Aziz al-Wattari.

This project taught me a lot about the international press and how it works—or doesn’t. For the opportunity to get press credentials and access during the 1992 and 1996 elections, I thank Rifa` al-Sayer of the Kuwait Ministry of Information. Among the non-Kuwaiti journalists I consulted, three went out of their way to be especially helpful: Shaqib al-Otaki (Middle East Economic Digest), Michael Sullivan (National Public Radio), and Bob Hepburn (Toronto Star). I thank the Middle East Economic Survey proprietors and Gary Lakes for giving me access to the MEES Archives during the preparation of the final draft of this manuscript, and Middle East Institute librarians Betsy Folkins and Paul Yachnes, who also were instrumental in helping me with sources.

Diplomats are supposed to fade quietly into the background, but four of the many who assisted me were so outstanding that I feel compelled to thank them by name: Ryan Crocker, Alberto Fernandez, Sylviane Galland, and Nathanial Howell.

Many non-Kuwaiti colleagues also have provided sustained intellectual support and advice throughout this project. They include Paul Aarts, Nathan Brown, Jill Crystal, Eleanor Doumato, Mark Gasiorowski, Greg Gause, Kate Gillespie, Ellis Goldberg, Anh Nga Longva, Toni Mercandante, Gwenn Okhrulik, Mary Ottaway, Frank Randall, Susan Slyomovics, Robin Teske, Bob Vitalis, and the two anonymous reviewers for Columbia University Press. My students Karla Scheele and Leslie Pitt worked hard to help prepare the manuscript. I also want to give special thanks to my editor, Roy Thomas, who has been perfect in every way.

Funding for this project came from a Fulbright Fellowship and grants from the United States Institute of Peace, the president of Old Dominion University, and the Graduate College of Iowa State University. As always, my financier of last resort has been my family. I thank my husband Richard and my sons Paul and Charles for all they gave up so that I could do this work.

Families are important sources of many things in addition to love and money. The privilege of being able to enjoy the company of Kuwaitis being themselves in informal settings provided the foundation of my understanding of the public acts I recount in this volume. Many of the people I’ve listed here talked with me not only in offices and restaurants but also invited me to their homes for meals and long afternoons with their families and friends. Two of them were responsible for invitations from women in their families, each of whom accepted me as a guest in her home for stays varying from a few weeks to more than two months. Even more than diplomats, the women who preside over Kuwaiti households are supposed to be invisible to the outside world. Here I identify my two hostesses only by their personal names, Zaineb and Hussa, and I give them my deepest thanks. To harbor houseguests who are not members of one’s family is rare in Kuwait. The openness of these two beautiful and accomplished women gave me an unparalleled view of the texture of everyday life in households at once comfortingly similar to and startlingly different from my own. There I could see a part of how culture in Kuwait is constructed and transmitted through the weaving of the bonds of love and obligation that connect human beings one to another across space and through time. Much of my affection for Kuwait and its people derives from my experiences as a temporary sojourner in these households. I always will be grateful for the generosity that made them possible.