In the country where women are not allowed to drive or travel without male consent, Saudi leader King Abdullah has granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections for the first time in the nation’s history.
A series of public polls are scheduled to take place on Thursday, where over 5,000 men will run in the second municipal election in almost 50 years, according to AFP. Men who are not appointed by the government will fill half of the seats in the kingdom’s 285 municipal councils.
Nominations for Thursday’s elections are already set, which means women will have to wait four more years, until 2015, to take part in the conservative Gulf kingdom’s voting process.
King Abdullah has also allowed women to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council – the formal advisory body that includes 150 members, according to a human rights report by the U.S. State Department. The Council currently has 13 female advisors, three of whom were added in 2010.
The push for women’s voting rights has been ongoing among activists in Saudi Arabia who have continued to write to government officials requesting voting rights. During a televised speech on Sunday, King Abdullah addressed the increased effort to equalize women through voice and vote.
According to a report by CNN, King Abdullah said, “Since we reject to marginalize the role of women in the Saudi society, in every field of works, according to the (Islamic) Sharia guidelines, and after consultations with many of our scholars, especially those in the senior scholars council, and others, who have expressed the preference for this orientation, and supported this trend, we have decided the following.”
Although progress in the ultra-conservative country is underway, the king’s voting promise is accompanied by a set of logistical strings attached – mainly, how will women who are unable to drive get to the polls in order to cast their votes? The gender-specific speech addressed a rejection of marginalization of women in Saudi Arabia, but if a series of systematic transportation policies are not in place by 2015, King Abdullah’s voting plan may be stifled by current pre-emptive laws that take precedence.
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Saudi King Announces Women Will be Allowed to Vote and Run for Office
September 25, 2011
In the country where women are not allowed to drive or travel without male consent, Saudi leader King Abdullah has granted women the right to vote and run in municipal elections for the first time in the nation’s history.
A series of public polls are scheduled to take place on Thursday, where over 5,000 men will run in the second municipal election in almost 50 years, according to AFP. Men who are not appointed by the government will fill half of the seats in the kingdom’s 285 municipal councils.
Nominations for Thursday’s elections are already set, which means women will have to wait four more years, until 2015, to take part in the conservative Gulf kingdom’s voting process.
King Abdullah has also allowed women to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council – the formal advisory body that includes 150 members, according to a human rights report by the U.S. State Department. The Council currently has 13 female advisors, three of whom were added in 2010.
The push for women’s voting rights has been ongoing among activists in Saudi Arabia who have continued to write to government officials requesting voting rights. During a televised speech on Sunday, King Abdullah addressed the increased effort to equalize women through voice and vote.
According to a report by CNN, King Abdullah said, “Since we reject to marginalize the role of women in the Saudi society, in every field of works, according to the (Islamic) Sharia guidelines, and after consultations with many of our scholars, especially those in the senior scholars council, and others, who have expressed the preference for this orientation, and supported this trend, we have decided the following.”
Although progress in the ultra-conservative country is underway, the king’s voting promise is accompanied by a set of logistical strings attached – mainly, how will women who are unable to drive get to the polls in order to cast their votes? The gender-specific speech addressed a rejection of marginalization of women in Saudi Arabia, but if a series of systematic transportation policies are not in place by 2015, King Abdullah’s voting plan may be stifled by current pre-emptive laws that take precedence.
