Rola Dashti

Mabrooooooooooooooook Rola!!!!!!

All your struggles and perseverance have finally paid off.

I remember when you slept next to your desk in the Kuwait Reconstruction Office in DC in 1991, working so hard that your mother shook her head in worry over you.

I remember seeing your brothers meet in the street in Kuwait on Liberation Day 1991: Salah in the Resistance and Jamal as an interpreter with the US Army. CNN captured the moment and showed your mother watching it happening live from Washington, DC and finally knowing that both of them were ok - with tears running down her face.

I remember sitting with ne're do well men who skoffed at the idea that you could make it in politics and I remember thinking that they were idiots - as they chose to rape Kuwait working for personal benefit in politics.

To those people said you were "too Lebanese", not married, not belonging to any major group, "too this" and "not enough that" - I say 'IN THEIR FACE!'

I have met very few people who have Kuwait's best interest at heart the way that you do - who are willing to fight for what they believe in - even in the face of strong opposition on different sides. You fought when others gave up.

Finally, Kuwait is voting for QUALIFIED candidates - not just by who their family members told them to vote for or who paid the most for a vote. Someone who has been Chairperson for Kuwait Economic Society with a PhD in Economics from Johns Hopkins is qualified.

Good on you, girl! Time to take it all to the next level - give them a good run! We are so so so so proud of you.