In his thoroughly researched and readable work, Gender and Politics in Kuwait, Meshal Al-Sabah provides scholars of the Gulf with an invaluable resource on the history and political facets that make a case study of Kuwaiti women's political participation both unique and an example for political progress throughout the region. Al-Sabah frames the struggle for women's political participation as a keystone for Islamic democracies to wrestle with. In the Introduction he points out that Instead of importing “Western” democracy into the region, a process that is inevitably doomed to fail, these states are developing Islamic democracies, blending Islamic culture with many of the recognized freedoms and rights enjoyed by developed nations. Despite this progress, the emancipation of women has been a major exception to this democratization, meeting resistance from traditionalists and Islamic scholars. Giving women the right to participate in the political process has been slow, because it encompasses wider issues than women's rights alone. The issue of women's political rights in the Gulf Cooperation Council (gcc) highlights the tension between classes, the differing ideologies of Shiʿis and Sunnis and, most importantly, the battle between liberal secularists and traditional Islamists. (pp. 1–2) The author draws from previous literature to contextualize the extent to which Kuwait's political institutions have evolved, as well as the nature of the relationship of the parliament to the emir and ruling family. Al-Sabah characterizes the Iraqi invasion of 1990 as a turning point for Kuwaiti democracy and for the political inclusion of women. But he blames the slow progress of women's rights after the invasion on the ruling family's pressures to maintain a balance between demands of traditional Islamists and women's calls for emancipation. Following a failed parliamentary vote on women's political rights in 1999, Kuwaiti women slowly rose to prominent roles in nonpolitical arenas through their qualifications, including top roles in academia, business, medicine, and civil society activism (chapter 3). All these steps were essential for women to ultimately gain their political rights by the emir's decree in 2005.Kuwait's institution building, including a thriving parliament and establishment of schools and universities since the early days of its independence, have provided several generations of Kuwaiti citizens with higher education and exposure to people and ideas beyond the state's borders. This openness to outsiders and an exchange of ideas has given Kuwaitis experience negotiating democratic governance on its own terms. But as Al-Sabah so carefully lays out, the political participation of women has been and continues to be a special case for democracy practiced within Kuwait's Islamic constraints, as religion has been largely interpreted through a conservative, traditional lens in which men have dominated the public sphere while relegating women to the private sphere. Despite this traditionalism, Al-Sabah documents how women forcefully made their case for political participation as an important part of the Kuwaiti resistance during the Iraqi invasion of 1990.Before 1990, decades of important history preceded the Kuwaiti women's movement. Kuwait's origins as a state and its relationship to its neighbors Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia shaped its early history. The oil boom and population explosion of the 1960s prompted the newly independent state of Kuwait to invest in infrastructure and people (14), including opening schools for girls and a co-ed university that he portrays as “the foundation of the women's movement” (18). Because of local access to education in the years prior to the invasion, Kuwaiti women were known as being part of the forefront of female education. They also created a rising professional female class that voiced its views through participation in women's organizations such as the Women's Cultural and Social Society, which is still active today (21).Al-Sabah begins his narrative of Kuwaiti women's path to political progress by documenting the year 1991 as a turning point in Kuwaiti politics. Women did not relegate themselves to the private sphere during a time of war, but in fact galvanized the whole society through their active participation (32–37). Despite women's important role during the war, Al-Sabah claims that the meaning of their full and equal political participation (symbolized by obtaining their political rights to vote and run for office) was debated in the aftermath of the 1990 crisis (chapter 2). While the emir pushed women's political rights on to the legislative agenda, it was challenged by the all-male parliament, and not only from Islamists but from a variety of different factions who stood to lose power if women were included. Al-Sabah gives credit to women's persistent activities in the civil arena for perpetuating the gains they made and to convince Kuwaitis that they were worthy of full political rights. Al-Sabah presents the real politics and debate within the ruling family, an important perspective considering the relationship between the executive and parliament on this issue (chapter 4). Al-Sabah makes note of the influence of sectarianism and the religious divide in regards to women's rights in Kuwait, showing that often Kuwaiti Shiʿis were more supportive of women's rights than were tribal and Islamist Sunnis (68–70).While acknowledging the internal debates among Kuwaitis, Al-Sabah raises the point that once thrust into the global spotlight after the war, the international debate about Kuwaiti women's rights became an additional pressure on the speed of Kuwait's democratic change. Kuwait's relatively long history of having a local and free press worked to create a politically aware population (134–38). The largely liberal viewpoints expressed in the press created a niche for Islamist views to be expressed in the media during a period in which the Islamists were gaining political popularity during the 1980s (138–44). Subsequently, international media and the speed of information, facilitated by the expansion of digital technology including mobile phones and social media, introduced new voices into the debate for women's political rights (144–52). Al-Sabah points out that censorship, which is demanded by Islamists and increasingly enforced by the government, threatens Kuwait's long history of free expression. One takeaway for neighboring countries, according to Al-Sabah, is the role that the government plays in terms of shaping the terms of the debate on women's rights: “As long as the government supports women's rights, this is no problem; if, on the other hand, the National Assembly grows in power and begins to swing towards the traditionalist factions, then the feminist movement may well find itself under siege” (158).Important to this history is the role of sponsors and factions not just between the ruling family, the all-male Parliament, and the media, but also within the Kuwaiti Women's Rights Movement. Al-Sabah names various groups, both secular and Islamist, whose strategies and agendas toward women's political rights were also debated. He includes the United States as an influence on women's rights groups in Kuwait, by virtue of its disappointment in the delay in granting women's right to vote, as it believed this was an essential component of establishing Kuwait as a strong democracy (173–74). He also lists Kuwaiti youth as an essential component of opening up Kuwait's democracy, for women and other groups: Effectively, youth demonstrations in 2006 forced a change in the law governing the size of electoral districts, which opened the door for women and other minority groups to have a voice and stand for election, with genuine hopes of success.The youth of Kuwait have also been instrumental in agitating for change in laws protecting migrant workers, especially the thousands of Southeast Asian and Indian women who are continually mistreated by Kuwaiti citizens…. This particular campaign once again shows how the issue of women's rights is becoming linked to other elements of Kuwaiti society, rather than standing alone, and dovetails with the modern approach to feminism; tying women's rights to other causes. (177) At the same time, it has been more than a decade now since Kuwaiti women have been given their political rights, ultimately granted by Emiri decree in 2005. Yet women only gained seats in the National Assembly in 2009, and subsequently have learned a lot of lessons about power sharing and participating as savvy negotiators in the political process. Women who campaigned early on faced high expectations and the challenge of running independently without political or financial support relative to male candidates. And the fact that women struggle to obtain and then retain political power as parliamentarians is not unique to Kuwait's democratic development. In fact, Al-Sabah characterizes their participation as a “long road” to success. He mentions tribalism and Islamism as threats to women's future political progress (196) and traditionalists and conservatives in parliament (198) as forces to win over for long-term acceptance of women's roles outside the home. However, he also sees a burden on women in parliament to live up to the high expectations society has for them and to pave the way for future female politicians, cautioning them to remain “untainted” by politics and to outperform their male counterparts (200–203). While this advice seems noble, feminist scholars would take Al-Sabah to task for the way that he urges women politicians to become savvy but remain “untainted” by political negotiation and calls on them to “outperform” their male counterparts. Yet, men are not faced with the double burdens of career and maintaining their households and home duties, and men are never demoted from office for having underperformed on the basis of their gender. To this point, Al-Sabah presents a case for expanding the meaning of feminism to be more inclusive (208), and to view women's rights as a spectrum (209) and not exclusively the two poles of secular feminism and Islamist feminism.In his epilogue, Al-Sabah argues for a number of policy recommendations that summarize his analysis of the history of women's struggle to move Kuwait's project of an Islamic democracy forward. Specifically, Al-Sabah proposes that Kuwaitis expand the concept of women's rights beyond the political sphere, and beyond attention to rights for women, to the improvement of rights for Kuwaiti society as a whole. He advocates increasing women's contribution to the economy by improving the transition from education to employment and increasing legislation to protect both Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti women's rights at work.Among the unique strengths of Al-Sabah's work is his own perspective as a Kuwaiti male, documenting the history of Kuwaiti women's political participation both as an insider and outsider. As a Kuwaiti, Al-Sabah is intimately familiar with the political bargains that women and the broader society have had to make over generations to come to the current state in its democratic development. Yet as a male, Al-Sabah views women as one of many groups of the population whose struggle transcends gender and could be a model for expanding Kuwaiti democracy to other subgroups of the population, namely to expand and integrate the large number of non-Kuwaitis into society in a healthy and productive way. One other practical point he raises is that Kuwaitis must strive for a truer “equality” in their education system, where it seems men are lagging behind (253). While it is great that women and girls have ably exploded into higher education, even into degrees traditionally pursued by men such as engineering, medicine, and economics, he says, “the question becomes, ‘Why are fewer men entering universities?’” (253), which is indeed an important question for future study.Al-Sabah's work is not only a valuable contribution historically, but his methodological approach of incorporating previous literature, historical material, and elite interviews with a convenience sample of “ordinary” Kuwaitis provides a richer perspective on a number of points during the struggle for women's political rights, including the excitement, apprehension, passion, and apathy that characterize political transition. Meshal Al-Sabah has given scholars of the Gulf a valuable work that continues to honor the legacy of Kuwait's women's movement and its import for democracy in the region.