After historic elections allowed women to vote and run for office for the first time in the Persian Gulf nation, initial reports show that at least five – and as many as 19 – Saudi females have been elected to public office. The mayor of Mecca, which is the heart of Saudi Arabia’s hyper-conservative brand of Islam, told the AP that a woman also won a seat in a nearby city.
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Last weekend, for the first time, women were allowed to vote in an election.
Saudi women had to vote at separate polling centers from men, and female candidates were not allowed to speak directly with male voters, either needing to address them through a partition using a projector and microphone, or by being represented by male surrogate campaigners.
As a result, women accounted for less than 10 percent of registered voters and few female candidates were expected to be elected. It’s a significant change as in the two previous rounds of voting for the councils, in 2005 and 2011, were for men only.
The move to allow women to vote has been described as a step forward for equality in the male-dominated kingdom.
However, while women’s suffrage has in many other countries been a transformative moment in the quest for gender equality, its impact in Saudi Arabia is likely to be more limited due to a wider lack of democracy and continued social conservatism. The percent of turnout of women was higher but the number of registered women was much lower than men. Two women were elected in Tabuk, and one in al-Jawf, in the kingdom’s northernmost areas won. The councils these women will serve on do not have legislative powers, but advise authorities and help oversee local budgets. ” This was prior to when the late King Abdullah appointed women into his council of advisers”. The oldest woman in the family was 94 year-old Naela Mohammad Nasief.
A female voter, Najla Harir, said: “I exercised my electoral right”.
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The UBC computer science student says she spoke to her mother back home in Saudi Arabia who cast her first ever ballot. We hope these women create laws that would give a better quality of life for women in Saudi. “It was a thrilling experience”.
