Saudi Arabia women voted in municipal elections Saturday morning, marking the first time they have been allowed to cast ballots in the conservative nation.
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More than 5,000 men and around 980 women are standing as candidates for municipal council seats on Saturday. That figure still falls well short of male voter registration, which stands at 1.35 million. The only other way they can communicate to potential voters is through male relatives.
Some Saudis say they are too jaded to vote, calling the councils effectively powerless in a country where all decisions must pass scrutiny by the ruling family. Nasief said the election campaign was “not really” fair because of the segregation and a rule against any candidates publishing their own picture, but it “felt really good” to vote.
The results of the vote are expected on Sunday.
The post Saudi women head to the polls, enter elections for the first time appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
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.
“Women are partners of men”. She simply tweeted “I’ve been eliminated as a candidate for the municipal elections”. Abdullah Al-Maiteb made his way into a polling station in the capital Riyadh Saturday morning, expressing a widely held sentiment about why women shouldn’t be on the ballot. But because of restricted interaction between the two sexes, female candidates have had to speak behind a partition when campaigning. 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.
“Her role is not in such places”.
Hefzi is one of 978 women who registered as candidates for these elections.
Ahmad Abdel Aziz Soulaybi, 78, said he did not know enough about female candidates in his region to support any. This opens room for Saudi leaders to add more women despite the election outcome.
A slow expansion of women’s rights began four years ago under Salman’s predecessor Abdullah, who announced that women would join the elections this year.
“I will probably vote for one of the men”, he said.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that prevents women from driving, and women are required to get permission from a “male guardian” before they work, attend a university, marry, or travel.
Polls were open to men in 2005 for the first time in 40 years.
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Omar Mohammed, a 49-year-old accountant who will vote in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, said he had not come across any female campaigners.
