Of the 130,000 Saudi women who registered to vote in the elections, on the day it is believed that 82 percent showed up at polling stations to make their vote count.
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The powers of municipal councils are limited to advising local government and helping oversee budgets, but the election has still been hailed by women activists as a crucial first step towards achieving wider rights and broadening the understanding of civic engagement. “We have been waiting for this day for a long time”.
“We need more”, said Aljazi Al-Hossaini, who was defeated in Diriyah on the edge of Riyadh, where three women won seats, according to Saudi news channel Al-Ekhbaria.
Salma bint Hazab al-Otaibi won a seat in the Madrika district of Makkah, the holiest city of Islam.
Rasha Hefzi, a prominent businesswoman who won a seat in Jeddah, thanked all those who supported her campaign and trusted her, pledging: “What we have started, we will continue”. Additionally, a woman won in Saudi Arabia’s southern border area of Jizan, another in Asir and two won in al-Ahsa. She ran against seven men and two women in Saturday’s ballot, he added.
Khadra al-Mubarak in the Gulf coast city of Qatif confirmed to AFP that she was also among the victors. Additional sources compiled by CBS News report that Lama al-Suleiman was elected in Saudi Arabia’s second largest city of Jiddah, Hinuwf al-Hazmi was elected in the northern region of al-Jawf, and Mona el-Emery and Fadhila al-Attawy were elected in the northwestern region of Tabuk. “Even if it was only one woman, we’re really proud of that”.
She said that winning the election offers a good chance to women to raise their voice over issues such as divorce, marriage, women’s retirement and insurance.
And of the 2,100 council seats availble in this vote, female candidates won less than 20. “However, 235 candidates, nine of them women, were stopped from participating due to violations, and they were penalized with SR50,000 each”.
Female candidates could not directly meet any male voters during their campaigns.
Female voters said registration was hindered by factors including bureaucratic obstacles and a lack of transport.
This included about 119,000 women, out of a total native Saudi population of nearly 21 million.
“The participation of women represents an important step forward in Saudi Arabia toward a more inclusive electoral process that will ensure all citizens are represented in a government accountable to all Saudi citizens”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement”.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia boasts modern infrastructure of highways, skyscrapers and ever-more shopping malls.
Saudi women face vast restrictions and must get permission from male family members to travel, work or marry and are not permitted to drive.
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Before it was announced that women would take part in this year’s polls, the country’s grand mufti, its most senior religious figure, described women’s involvement in politics as “opening the door to evil”.
