Saudi Suffragettes: Women in Saudi Arabia are finally allowed to vote and run for elections

For the first time in the country’s history, women in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to vote and run for office in the upcoming nationwide municipal elections in December.

Marking a significant step forward for women’s rights in the conservative kingdom, the December elections will be the first opportunity for women to vote since the new rights were announced by the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 2011.

Voter registration began earlier this week on August 22 while voters from Mecca and Medina were allowed to register a week earlier. Candidates will be able to register to run for local office beginning on August 30. According to local media, an estimated 70 women are planning to register as candidates with an additional 80 as campaign managers.

If successfully elected to office, these women will take part in approving annual budgets, suggesting planning regulations, setting taxes and overseeing urban and development projects.

“The participation of the Saudi women in the municipal elections as voters and candidates was a dream for us,” Jamal Al Saadi, one of the first women to register as a voter, told the Saudi Gazette. “The move will enable Saudi women to have a say in the process of the decision-making…I was quite ready for this day. I have prepared all the documents needed to obtain a voter’s card. We are just at the beginning of the road.”

While Saudi officials describe the move as a “significant milestone in progress towards a participation-based society,” rights groups and activists say Saudi Arabia’s move is a modest step forward and the country has a long way to go towards complete equality for women in a country where they are still banned from driving.

“To make serious headway on women’s rights, Saudi authorities should scrap the male guardianship system, under which ministerial policies and practices forbid women from obtaining a passport, marrying, travelling, or accessing higher education without the approval of a male guardian,” Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

After King Abdullah’s decision in 2011, Amnesty International said granting women the right to vote was “much overdue” but “does not go nearly far enough.”

“We can only hope that this announcement on voting will be the first in a long line of reforms that guarantee Saudi women the rights that they have been demanding for so long,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Muna Abusulayman, an influential Saudi media personality and philanthropist, is more optimistic that the political participation of women will make way for more reforms and “bring a female point of view, demanding certain amendments to laws that are unfavorable towards women.”

Despite the roadblocks ahead, many women in Saudi Arabia are already expressing their excitement and commitment to participate in the upcoming elections.

As Haifa al-Hababi, one of 21 candidates at a workshop for the upcoming elections, best put it: “Change the system. Change is life. The government has given us this tool and I intend to use it.”

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