The New York Times had an interesting piece up yesterday on Kuwaiti women and their recently-won right to run for parliament.

Elections had been scheduled for summer 2007, the first since women were given the right to vote and run for office in 2005. But on May 21, Kuwait's ruler, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, dissolved the all-male 50-member parliament because of a rowdy dispute over election laws and ordered early elections June 29.

Women who thought they had more than a year to plan their campaigns had only five weeks.

''The advantage is that we will be working and concentrating harder,'' said Fatima al-Abdali, who submitted her application to run on the first day of registration last week.

Um, yeah. But damn that can’t be easy--especially when folks are still getting used to the idea of women in politics. 17 women have registered as candidates so far.