Rola Dashti is a Kuwaiti activist advocating democratic reform, gender equality and increased roles for women in public life. Dashti lobbied for the May 2005 decree permitting Kuwaiti women to vote and run for parliamentary elections for the very first time. She won a seat in the 2009 election, but lost her seat, along with other female candidates in last month’s parliamentary poll. She has described the result, and the fact that no women have been elected to the current cabinet as “an insult to women”.