An Interview with Iran Conference Panelist Ibtisam al-Kitbi
MEI: Dr. Al-Kitbi, you’ve written and spoken on political and social reforms like education and democratization in the UAE. To what degree are the Emirati people being impacted on the ground by these changes?
Al-Kitbi: The Emirates was the last country in the GCC to conduct elections. In elections, if you look at it, the people ask for more political rights. But you don’t find this here actually; maybe because of the economic situation. It’s not like Bahrain or Saudi Arabia in the UAE. For one, the population (of native Emiratis) is very small; its only 20% of the total population. Another difference is that the Emirates have not had any type of violent incident; when you compare it to Saudi Arabia, there is nothing. There are none of those violent Islamic groups in the Emirates like in Saudi Arabia. So, you cannot say that there is pressure from the inside towards democratization except from some people, like me.
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Dr. Ibtisam Al-Kitbi is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at UAE University. Al-Kitbi serves on the boards of the UAE Society for Human Rights and the Arabic Organization for Transparency, and is also a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Social Affairs – UAE. She has been on the Consultative committee for both the UAE Center for Strategic Studies and the UAE’s Federal National Council. Al-Kitbi holds a doctorate in political science from Cairo University. This interview was conducted by Naomi Stone, Assistant Editor of The Middle East Journal.
