Saudi Arabia voters elect 20 women candidates for the first time

A woman won in Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad’s first mosque was built.

Saudi was the last country to give its women the right to vote.

According to the AAP, 20 women have been elected (out of 979 who ran) and while this only represents one percent of the 2,100 municipal council seats, this is a huge step forward for a country who has never previously allowed women to vote, let alone run.

Rasha Hefzy, a businesswoman who won in Jeddah, voiced her joy.

Saudi website sabq.org is reporting 20 women have been elected to councils around the country.

The other wins include two in Tabuk, two in al-Ahsa, one in Jizan, one in Asir, and one in al-Jawf. Female candidates also barred from speaking to male voters and required to segregate campaign offices. “Honestly, we weren’t expecting anyone to win”, said Sahar Hassan Nasief, a women’s rights activist in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. Nassima al-Sadah, an activist in the eastern city of Qatif, said the voting process itself took place relatively smoothly, unlike the registration.

According to the Associated Press, out of the country’s 130,000 registered female voters, 106,000 cast ballots, in other words around 82 percent of the eligible female voters took part in the elections.

The late king Abdullah introduced municipal elections for men in 2005 and said women would participate this time around.

“I want to see the woman be more involved in every institution in the government and in the private sector”.

The British newspaper said all candidates refrained from addressing the larger issues of democracy, human rights or the role of sharia law and punishments – which draw huge global attention.

Considering that the women candidates were not allowed to directly address voters of the opposite sex and campaigned nearly exclusively online, mostly through social media, the results were incredible.

Though there are no quotas for female council members, an additional 1050 seats are appointed with approval by the king who could use his powers to ensure more women are represented. Just before King Abdullah’s announcement regarding women and municipal elections, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority, its grand mufti, deemed women’s involvement in politics as “opening the door to evil”.

Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi was elected to a council in the holy city of Mecca, the official SPA news agency reported, citing election commission president Osama al-Bar. This development is an indication of a major breakthrough in the women rights movement in Saudi Arabia.

The number of women in the Saudi workforce also has been increasing, from 23,000 in 2004 to more than 400,000 in 2015, according to the government. We’re doing history now.