Following the easing of the restrictions, 950 women and 6,000 men contested for seats on the municipal council, the only chamber open for public election in the kingdom.
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As in other aspects of Saudi society, voting has been segregated.
“We are making history”.
The results of the vote are expected on Sunday.
It is also the last country in the world to allow women to vote except for the Vatican City, where male cardinals elect the pope. “Women are partners of men”. “It doesn’t matter if I vote for a man or a woman”, said another north-eastern resident, who gave her name only as Noura, 24. “The Prophet (Muhammad) worked for his wife Khadija”.
The candidates were vying for about 2,100 council seats.
The candidates will serve four-year terms that begin on January 1.
While the municipal councils do not have legislative powers, they oversee a range of community issues, such as budgets for maintaining and improving public facilities.
The historic vote follows a 2011 order by the late King Abdullah, who encouraged more female inclusion in politics, education, and employment. Women are still banned from taking the wheel here.
Women are regarded as minors in the conservative kingdom and must be accompanied by a man wherever they go.
Despite the pleased faces, numerous women face deep societal disapproval of their actions – both candidates and voters. Abdullah Al-Maiteb, on his way into a polling station in the capital Riyadh Saturday morning, expressed to the Associated Press a widely held sentiment about why women shouldn’t be on the ballot.
“As long as she has her own place and there is no mixing with men, what prevents her from voting?” “Her role is at home managing the house and raising a new generation”. “If we allow her out of the house to do such business, who is going to take care of my sons?” Many women said they could not afford the high cost of running a visible campaign.
“It feels great”, she said as she emerged, with a huge smile. “We prefer men to win”.
Some of the women asked the media not to take their photograph before they were whisked away. She has been pushing for this day for more than a decade.
Women candidates must speak from behind a screen while in public, according to Saudi laws.
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.
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Elections themselves are a rare thing in the Saudi kingdom – Saturday will be only the third time in history that Saudis have gone to the polls. I think I have done the winning by running. “The fact that we have gone through this exercise is what really matters”.
