President Bush Participates in Roundtable on Democracy and Development with Kuwaiti Women

United States Embassy
Kuwait City, Kuwait

THE PRESIDENT: I want to thank these ladies from Kuwait for joining me and the Chargé. I'm really looking forward to the conversation. Laura had met with some before and came back very impressed by the spirit and desire of Kuwaiti women to be full participants in Kuwaiti society.

First, I'd like to thank His Highness for his hospitality. Secondly, last night in a conversation with His Highness I said, any regrets about having women vote in elections and run for elections? He said, absolutely not. He said, our society is enriched by the participation of our women. And he's right. All societies are enriched by the participation of women. I happen to believe very strongly in the freedom agenda and I think an integral part of that agenda is making sure that all participants in society have got an equal voice.

And one of the interesting -- I think when people look back at the history of the Middle East and history of the world it's going to be women who helped lead the freedom agenda. And it's happening right here in Kuwait. We've had people here at the table who ran for Kuwaiti parliament. Jenan ran, she said -- I told her the first race I ever ran, I lost -- (laughter) -- and she said, well, the first ran I ever ran I lost too. But she intends to win next time around.

And so I appreciate you all coming. I'm honored to be with you. We want to help -- part of our democracy agenda, of course, is the empowerment of women.

The roundtable discussion was covered in various local newspapers including Al Qabas and Kuwait Times