First woman councillor elected in Saudi Arabia

For the first time in the history of Saudi Arabia, women were allowed to vote and stand as candidates in municipal elections on Saturday.

The women who won hail from vastly different parts of the country, ranging from Saudi Arabia’s largest city to a small village near Islam’s holiest sites.

“But in an ultraconservative country where women are deprived of many basic rights-such as the ability to drive or to travel overseas without the permission of a male relative-many female voters see their inclusion in the election process as a turning point”.

Municipal councils are the only government body elected by Saudi citizens.

“Critics argue that while it’s important women have now been given the right to vote, the gesture is merely symbolic and ignores the deeper political problems that persist in the country”, The Christian Science Monitor’s Olivia Lowenberg explained Saturday.

Al-Omar said the historic election drew a staggering 106,000 female voters out of 130,000 who’d registered.

In Jiddah, three generations of women from the same family voted for the first time.

‘I’ve have never seen this before.

This included about 119,000 women, out of a total native Saudi population of 21 million.

Female candidates, numbering around 900, could not meet face-to-face with male voters during campaigning.

While this was the first election for women, men have voted twice before, in 2005 and 2011. Saudi Arabia is a deeply conservative country whose Royal Family has strong ties to our own royals, which is why we welcome these new media freedoms for Saudi women and possibly the Duchess of Cornwall, without our mentioning human rights, war, mass deaths at overcrowded events or Saudi support for terrorism.

This election was the first in Saudi Arabia that saw the participation of women and many have portrayed it as a progressive step towards democracy and gender equality.

It’s been a monumental weekend for women in Saudi Arabia.

Turnout was 47.4 percent in the third local elections to be held in the kingdom, with some 2,100 councillors elected to 280 councils, the High Electoral Commission announced yesterday evening.

Of the 6,917 candidates who contested the elections, 979 were women.

In Medina too one woman was elected. Women posed for pictures behind the ballot box and yelled “Mabrook”, Arabic for congratulations, to one another as they exited. “I’m about to do it”, Jawaher al-Rawili, 30-year-old government worker told her friend over the phone before entering a women-only polling station in Riyadh. “It was a thrilling experience”.

As a result, women accounted for less than 10 percent of registered voters.