History made as 17 Saudi women win council seats

In the first announcement of a female victor, Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi was elected in the holy city of Makkah, the official SPA news agency reported.

In northern Saudi Arabia, Hanouf bint Mufreh bin Ayad Al Hazimi won a seat in Al Jawf, Mina Salman Saeed Al Omairi and Fadhila Afnan Muslim Al Attawi both won seats in the Northern Borders province.

More than 900 women were among the 6,440 candidates standing for seats on 284 councils.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with some of the worldÕs tightest restrictions on women, including a ban on driving. Saudi was the last country to give its women the right to vote. Some 130,000 women were registered to vote – a number far below the 1.35m registered male voters.

It showed that in the mountainous Baha region, female turnout was around 82 percent, while about half the registered male electorate cast ballots. There were 2,100 council seats available.

“It’s very hard because it’s the first time-and we are competing against men”, Rasha Hefzi, a social worker who won a seat representing Jeddah, said before election results were announced. While the poll was only for two-thirds of seats in municipal councils, without lawmaking or national powers, it has been called a landmark election.

“There are people who see women voting and running in the election as another step towards Westernisation”. This development is an indication of a major breakthrough in the women rights movement in Saudi Arabia. “Dealing first hand with the council’s files, the needs of the citizen, the files that, like we said, were previously out of reach of women, will enable her to become more qualified to deal with other subjects in the future”. “I thank God I am living it”, Saudi academic and women’s rights campaigner, Hatoon al-Fassi, told BBC reporters in an interview after she had cast her vote.

At least three activists claimed in the run up to the election that they were disqualified from contesting.

Their duties on municipal councils will be limited to local affairs, including responsibility for streets, public gardens and rubbish collection.

Another female voter, Najla Harir, said: “I exercised my electoral right”.

The country’s strict public separation of sexes meant that during the campaign, female candidates could not directly address the majority of voters: men.