May 7, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1424

DOHA, May 6: Qatar on Tuesday appointed Sheikha bint Ahmed Al-Mahmud as the Gulf state’s first woman cabinet minister and she was immediately sworn in.

Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who has pushed through a series of reforms in the conservative Muslim outpost, published a decree appointing her minister for education and teaching, replacing Ahmed bin Khalifa Busherbak.

The appointment followed an April 29 referendum in which Qataris overwhelmingly approved a written constitution recognising a woman’s right to vote and run for office.

Last November, the amir gave his sister, Sheikha Hossa bint Khalifa bin Hamad Al-Thani, the rank of minister when he appointed her deputy chairman of a higher council for family affairs. But she did not join the cabinet.

The new constitution ushers in a limited form of democracy, leaving real power with the emir, who overthrew his father in 1995, and his family.

Elections are due to be held next year to fill two-thirds of the seats in a 45-member consultative council. The emir will appoint the others.

A woman won a seat on Qatar’s municipal elections in April after rivals stood aside.

In the first municipal elections in the affluent oil and gas-rich monarchy in 1999, none of the women candidates were elected. —AFP