Saudi women were allowed to vote in
elections Saturday for the first time
ever, in a tentative step towards easing
widespread sex discrimination in the
ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom.
In another first, women were allowed
to stand as candidates in the polls for
municipal councils, the country’s only
elected public chambers.
The absolute monarchy, where women
are banned from driving and must
cover themselves from head-to-toe in
public, was the last country to allow
only men to vote.
More than 900 women are running,
competing with nearly 6,000 men for
seats. They have had to overcome a
number of obstacles to participate in
the landmark poll.
Gender segregation enforced at public
facilities meant that female candidates
could not directly meet any male
voters during their campaigns.
Women voters said registration was
hindered by bureaucratic obstacles, a
lack of awareness of the process and
its significance, and the fact that
women could not drive themselves to
sign up.
Polling stations were also segregated
Saturday.
As a result, women account for less
than 10 percent of registered voters
and few, if any, female candidates are
expected to be elected.
“To tell you the truth, I’m not running
to win,” said Amal Badreldin al-Sawari,
60, a paediatrician in central Riyadh.
“I think I have done the winning by
running.”
But one-third of seats on Saudi’s 284
councils are appointed by the
municipal affairs ministry, leaving
women optimistic that they will at
least be assigned some of them.
– ‘Many equal rights’ –
Sawari said she wanted to be a
candidate out of patriotism and
because Islam gives women rights.
“Men and women have equal rights in
many things,” she said, reciting a
relevant verse from the Koran, and
adding that everyone she encountered
was supportive of her campaign.
“Our society is dominated by men in
appearance, but women work
everywhere.”
Aljazi al-Hossaini waged her 12-day
campaign largely over the Internet,
putting her manifesto on her website
where both men and women could see
it.
“I did my best, and I did everything by
myself,” said the 57-year-old
management consultant, running in
the Diriyah area on the edge of Riyadh.
“I’m proud of myself that I can do it.”
But not all women trying to break the
mould in the conservative kingdom
had such a positive experience.
As campaigning began last month,
three activists said they had been
disqualified from running.
They included Loujain Hathloul, who
spent more than two months in jail
after trying to drive into the kingdom
from the United Arab Emirates late
last year, in a case that attracted
worldwide attention.
An appeals committee reversed her
disqualification just two days before
the end of campaigning, Hathloul said
on Twitter.
“That is not fair,” she said.
Nassima al-Sadah, a human rights
activist in the Gulf coast city of Qatif,
told AFP she had begun legal action
over her own disqualification.
And a resident of northeastern Saudi
Arabia, who asked not to be named,
said the female candidate she wanted
to vote for withdrew after local Islamic
scholars objected.
– ‘Lack of information’ –
An AFP reporter at a male polling
centre in central Riyadh said only a
handful of voters arrived to cast early
ballots after voting opened at 8:00 am
(0500 GMT).
Ahmad Abdel Aziz Soulaybi, 78, said
he did not know enough about female
candidates in his region to support
any.
“I voted for a man because I lack
information about the women,” he told
AFP.
According to election commission data,
nearly 1.5 million people aged 18 and
over are registered to vote.
This includes about 119,000 women,
out of a total native Saudi population
of almost 21 million.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia boasts modern
infrastructure of highways,
skyscrapers and ever-more shopping
malls.
But women still face many restrictions,
and must get permission from male
family members to travel, work or
marry.
Ruled by the al-Saud family of King
Salman, Saudi Arabia has no elected
legislature and faces intense Western
scrutiny of its rights record.
A slow expansion of women’s rights
began under Salman’s predecessor
Abdullah who announced four years
ago that women would join the
elections this year.
The kingdom’s first municipal ballot
was in 2005, for men only.
Polls close at 5:00 pm, with counting
on Sunday.
