Among them, school was let out for a week so children would be safe at home. And yesterday, with the beginning of a new work week, officials decided to keep government offices open, with one modification: Women, specifically, were given permission to stay home from work.

When it comes to women's social status, Kuwait seems a highly conflicted place. Women work as diplomats and stock traders, and they make up 70 percent of the graduates from Kuwait University. Yet they lack the right to vote, and a law passed last summer bans college classes that would mix them with men.

Liberals and Islamic conservatives will no doubt battle over the future of Kuwaiti feminism for years to come. In the meantime, though, even some of Kuwait's most independent working women see the Cabinet's decree as gracious and not condescending.

A bank manager, Dalia al-Ghanim, said she is going to work because she has no children to look after while school is canceled. Though most Kuwaiti families have maids or nannies, she said, mothers should be home with their children in a time of war.

''A mother can't leave her kids, it's normal in animals and human beings,'' al-Ghanim said. ''A man is a man, and a mother is a mother, let's be honest.''

This story ran on page A29 of the Boston Globe on 3/23/2003.
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