Voting began today in Saudi Arabia’s first elections open to female voters and candidates, a tentative step towards easing restrictions that are among the world’s tightest on women.
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“There are plenty of candidates, more than 5,000 men and nearly 1,000 women”.
As it stands, women will not be allowed to drive themselves to the polling station, and if a woman did run for office they would have needed to rely heavily on a male spokesperson, because being in a room full of men is strictly prohibited.
Almost 6,000 men and around 980 women are running for candidates for local municipal council seats, AP reported. They also cannot attend town hall meetings if men are present due to gender segregation, so could not participate in all of the campaigning, which prohibited any photos of the candidates.
She said: “It feels really great to be part of this for the first time as a woman in Saudi”.
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Polling stations were also segregated on Saturday.
There has been little public criticism against the participation of women, and younger generations say they support it.
“Now women have a voice”, said Awatef Marzooq after casting her ballot at a school in the capital.
Mona Abu Suliman, a media personality and consultant in Riyadh, said that even if women don’t win, just going through this process is important. As a result, women account for less than 10 percent of registered voters and few, if any, female candidates are expected to be elected.
In response to such perspectives, Uber, the popular online taxi-hailing service, is offering free rides for women to and from polling stations throughout Saudi Arabia, in an effort to help increase the number of women at the polls throughout the kingdom Saturday.
Still, he said he expects some will be appointed as only two-thirds of council seats are elected.
Let’s hope the election leads to more positive change for the Saudi Arabian women.
A female local municipal council election candidate, Fawzeya al-Harbi, said women in the country have been waiting for the opportunity for past ten years.
Amna Ahmed, a 23-year-old Quran teacher, didn’t bother to register to vote because she too believes Saudi women have no place in government.
In this conservative country ruled by a strict form of Islam, women are still barred from driving and from traveling overseas without the permission of male relatives.
Many have welcomed female participation in the ballot as a step forward for women’s rights.
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This election is in fact only the third time in history that the extremely conservative country has gone to the polls, according to the BBC. An additional 1,050 seats are appointed with approval from King Salman, who could use his powers to appoint female candidates who don’t win outright.
