More than 900 women are standing in the December 12th municipal elections, which will also mark the first time women are allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia.
Ruled by King Salman, the oil-rich state has no elected legislature but has faced intense western scrutiny over its human rights record.
The country’s first municipal elections were held in 2005, followed by another vote in 2011, but in both cases only men were allowed to participate.
“We will vote for the women even though we don’t know anything about them,” Um Fawaz, a teacher in her 20s, said in Hafr al-Batin city. “It’s enough that they are women.”The absolute monarchy, which applies its strict interpretation of Islam, has faced widespread criticism for its lack of equal rights. Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are not allowed to drive. They must also cover themselves in black from head to toe in public and require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.
The late King Abdullah introduced the elections in 2005 and said women would participate in this year’s vote. In 2013, he also appointed women to the Shura council, which advises the cabinet. Abdullah died in January and was succeeded by Salman, who stuck to the election timetable.
About 7,000 people are vying for seats on 284 municipal councils in the vote, the Saudi electoral commission said. Only about 131,000 women have signed up to vote, compared with more than 1.35 million men, out of a native Saudi population of almost 21 million.
There is also disappointment at the performance of local councils and their limited powers – restricted to streets, public gardens and rubbish disposal.
Although the voting age has been lowered to 18 from 21 and the proportion of elected council members has increased to two-thirds, winning a seat remains a challenge for women in an electorate where male voters vastly outnumber them.
Nassima al-Sadah, a candidate in the Gulf coast city of Qatif, said officials told her late on Saturday that her name had been removed from the list. “I don’t know why,” she told Agence France-Presse. Her campaign was on hold as she tried to obtain clarification.
Al-Sadah was planning to be a particularly active candidate, she said, with a social media onslaught supported by traditional banners and brochures, none of which would be allowed to carry her picture – a restriction that also applies to male candidates.
In Hafr al-Batin, in the east of the country, an official poster promoting the elections and containing a drawing of a man and a woman had been defaced, with the woman’s face slashed out.
Because of the kingdom’s strict separation of sexes – which applies to election facilities as it does elsewhere in public – candidates wishing to meet directly with voters will have to meet women one day and men the next, with a male spokesman addressing the men.
Saud al-Shammry, a 43-year-old Riyadh resident, said it was time for a new approach. “We strive for development and real change, free from tribal or family biases,” he said.
He said there was “a big possibility” he could vote for a woman, if her platform was convincing.
Ahmed, a government worker in Hafr al-Batin, saw no problem with having women candidates but said:
“Why not? They are just there to decorate the government anyway,” he said.
Source: Agence France-Presse
INTERESTING
ReplyDeleteAt last!
DeleteThey r now in d modern era unlik b in d days of Moses. Good4them!
Comment frm ROYAL PRIESTHOOD (royalpriesthood007@gmail.com)
No be small thing o! Linda take note!
DeleteNawah! So women r only good for making babies and househelp chores. Tufiakwa!
DeleteWell, its good that they r loosening uip a bit
Hmmmmmmmmm dat's gud...
ReplyDeleteNever knew they weren't allowed to vote....nice move......
DeleteTalking about equal rights
ReplyDeleteUseless people...
ReplyDeleteUseless people...
ReplyDeleteIn Nigeria, there is no woman right. GREEDY CORRUPT MEN scattered everwhere
ReplyDeleteNice development, hope to see them grant more rights to women.
ReplyDelete~BONARIO~says so via NOKIA LUMIA
She are a good things,womens shoul partook in in the electioned of a country..
ReplyDeleteGush, wat kind of grammar is dis?
Delete#WhereIsWillheminaMoses?
Lols
DeleteJesus
DeleteAbeg i dnt like news abt dis country
ReplyDeleteI hate dia story cos a lot of atrocities is being committed dia
Dis is de last country in d whole world i wil ever wish 2 get my dear sef
Woreva mehnnnn
# oneandonlynwa@gmail.com#
# oneandonlynwa@gmail.com#
Who needs you there before .Do they tell you that they're looking for you . unbelievers like you can say rubbish because you want to make comments.
DeleteThank d Lord dat they hav woke up frm their slumber!
ReplyDeleteComment frm ROYAL PRIESTHOOD (royalpriesthood007@gmail.com)
This is beginning of their doom, now they'll loose their ground. TIMILEYIN BLESSING
ReplyDeleteWoreva mehnnnn
ReplyDelete# oneandonlynwa@gmail.com#
# oneandonlynwa@gmail.com#
End time women
ReplyDeleteSuch a huge step forward to dem.
ReplyDeleteSaudi and their strict laws against women.
ReplyDeleteReally?
ReplyDeleteNice one
ReplyDelete#Dakinzz
Finally development reaches Saudi...
ReplyDelete~D great anonymous!
Saudi believe that it is a woman that gave birth to both sex so why should one be discriminated? They are dead men playing gods. Holy Spirit would soon appear on d sky over them raining fire and sulfur over their male folk
ReplyDeleteHave all forgotten that Saudi is a holy land .so everyone should be careful with their comments .
Deletewow...finally today i get to open Linda Ikeji's blog on my computer. thank God u fixed the issue i guess!
ReplyDeleteAre they just waking up from backwardness? Stmcheew
ReplyDeleteNa stone age dem dey b4
ReplyDeleteLinda please carry the sugar belly rape story!!!!that story needs awareness please carry it for the sake of the female folk please carry that story since 2009 till now u must ve seen it please carry it
ReplyDeleteChoi @omeiza jagbojo you just murdered english language lolz!!!
ReplyDeleteI see hope and change for the oppressed women of Saudi Arabia.
ReplyDeleteHelp me, the father of my child left me because his mother hates Igbo.
Absolute nonsense.. the saudi's continue to allow the western world and their critism get to them. In a Sharia practice, women are not allowed to vote or be voted for. I frown at this, it's against the Islam. Fvck anybody who sees this as a development!!! This is Saudi, the holy land and every activity has to be guided by the sharia. @Abduldang.
ReplyDeleteUre a real backward dude...so ppl lik u stl exist?
Delete@Anonymous 7:26 PM obviously the president that allowed women to vote is educated and civillised. Is it not a woman that gave birth to you? What if women go on strike and say they will no longer give birth? The world will be doomed and there will be no voting or sharia law. Who put the sharia law in place? Is it God himself or a human being? If it is a human being, then a human being can also change it. Fuck u and fuck your holy land mentality madness. Grow up. Rubbish
Delete@Anonymous 7:26 PM obviously the president that allowed women to vote is educated and civillised. Is it not a woman that gave birth to you? What if women go on strike and say they will no longer give birth? The world will be doomed and there will be no voting or sharia law. Who put the sharia law in place? Is it God himself or a human being? If it is a human being, then a human being can also change it. Fuck u and fuck your holy land mentality madness. Grow up. Rubbish
DeleteYou this idiot talking here. If a woman didnt give birth to you and gave you life, would u have been alife to come to this blog to pass comment against women? Pls go and get a life
DeleteGoat. How does the sharia law sound?
DeleteGood for them.
ReplyDeleteApart from their laws that favours men and put women on the disadvantage, I think that this is good news and steps to growth in Saudi Arabia. Nice one.
ReplyDelete#TeamBlessed#
That's good
ReplyDeleteGood
ReplyDeleteLandmark! Do their women drive now?!
ReplyDelete..I dont like this movement ..its eneough to be under monarchy states...democracy will cause great fitna to the land of tawheed.
ReplyDelete