Saudi Arabia Women Vote For The First Time

In what can be called as a historic event, women in Saudi Arabia will vote for the first time on December 12, 2015. They will be contesting as well as voting for the first time in the municipal elections.

The landmark event is the latest move towards greater participation of women in Saudi public life. They were allowed to run for the elections of local chambers of commerce in 2005 and 30 women were appointed by King Abdullaah to the Shura Council.

According to a report by the Human Rights Watch, the women faced many difficulties. Only one-third of the single-sex voter registration centers were for women. Besides, they were far and not easily reachable for them, considering the fact that women are barred from driving in Saudi Arabia.

The women also had problems proving their identity as many women still don’t hold ID cards, though they are permitted to do so. The Saudi women also don’t usually own property or pay bills, making it difficult for them to prove their residency.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, said, “Voting and running for the municipal council elections is a landmark achievement for Saudi women.The government should fix the problems that are making it hard for women to participate and build on this progress to create momentum for further women’s rights reforms.”

The CNN reported that a total of 979 women candidates and 130,637 women voters registered to participate in the election, according to Saudi election officials, with 5,938 men running for the local offices, which mostly oversee planning and development issues.

Saudi Arabia’s strict interpretation of Sunni Islam and discriminatory male guardianship system remains intact despite government pledges to abolish it. The Saudi women cannot obtain a passport, marry, travel, or access higher education without the approval of a male guardian, usually a husband, father, brother, or son. Even employers require approval from a male guardian for hiring women. Some hospitals require male guardian approval before undertaking certain medical procedures for women.

Rachel Martin of the NPR told Refinery29, “It’s unclear. There are no real political dynamics in Saudi Arabia. A certain number of these municipal posts will be appointed, so after the election, if not many women have openly won seats through a direct vote, it will be interesting to see how many of them get appointed to the positions. That would be a real sign from the monarchy that they are pushing for a stronger role for women in public life. ”

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Nassima al-Sada, an activist from Qatif in the Shia eastern province banned from contesting, said in an interview, “We need to change the way people think about women. If we want to improve things in this country we need men and women at all levels of decision-making. Many people think elections are just for show because the government wants to demonstrate that there are reforms here. It doesn’t matter what the government wants. What matters is how I can use this to change things. Globalisation and social media mean the whole world is connected. Change will happen. The only question is how long it will take.”

Saudi Arabia is a member of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which aims at bringing women to the fore and making sure that women get a chance to exercise their right to political and public life on equal terms with men, including the right to vote in all elections and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies. It is high time that Saudi Arabia implements on the measures.