At least 13 women won municipal council seats in Saudi Arabia’s first ever election open to female voters and candidates, officials said yesterday, far exceeding expectations.
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The mayor of Mecca, Osama al-Bar, said Salma al-Oteibi won in an area called Madrakah, about 150 kilometers north of Islam’s holiest site. Apart from that, voter registration was hindered by the simple fact that women could not drive themselves to sign up, as well as the many other hurdles unique to Saudi Arabia’s all-male public sphere.
Women dressed in hijabs – traditional Islamic clothing – exercised a valuable human right to vote in last Saturday’s local municipal elections.
Still, al-Omar said the historic election drew a staggering 106,000 female voters out of some 130,000 who’d registered.
State-affiliated websites and independent news agencies indicate Saudi Arabians may have elected as many as 17 women, but no final tally has been announced.
Amal Badreldin al-Sawari, who was a losing candidate in the election, said that although the number of winning women is small, they have laid a path for women’s rights.
According to election commission data, almost 1.5 million people aged 18 and above signed up for the polls.
It is true that this is not the first experience that Saudi women have had of elections as the chamber of commerce elections preceded these ones.
It was left to men to represent female candidates before male voters, and candidates were not allowed to use their pictures in their campaign materials.
It said that two-thirds of the seats in the kingdom’s 284 municipal councils were up for grabs in Saturday’s elections.
Hanouf bint Mufrih bin Ayid al-Hazmi won in the northwestern region of Jawf, while Sanna Abdel Latif Hamam and Maasooma Abdel Mohsen al-Rida were elected in Ihsa province. Their jurisdiction extends to purely local affairs such as keeping the streets clean, maintaining public gardens and clearing the rubbish.
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Many women candidates ran on platforms that promised more nurseries to offer longer daycare hours for working mothers, the creation of youth centers with sports and cultural activities, improved roads, better garbage collection and overall greener cities.
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Before Abdullah announced women would take part in this year’s elections, the country’s Grand Mufti, its most senior religious figure, described women’s involvement in politics as “opening the door to evil”.
