In milestone, Saudis elect first women to councils

‘I’ve have never seen this before.

Female candidates weren’t allowed to give public speeches in the same way as their male counterparts.

She was running against seven men and two women, he added. Gaining the right to vote marked “the beginning” of greater rights for women in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi women vote at a polling center during the municipal elections, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015.

Outside one centre for women in Riyadh, cars driven by men arrived every few minutes with female voters dressed in black robes. They are among the 19 women who won in the historic elections. “She just doesn’t see how this vote will affect her daily life”, Rachel said. “We took it from the lion’s mouth”, she said. Her audience, a group of men, was sitting on the other side. “We support anything that does not violate sharia (Islamic law)”, he said.

Around 7,000 candidates, amongst them 979 women, competed within the election for a seat on the municipal councils, in that are the one authorities body elected by Saudi citizens.

“The day of the Saudi woman”, Saudi women’s rights activist and writer Hatoon al-Fassi declared in a tweet.

Turnout for women was around 80 per cent in parts of the country, well in excess of the figure for men. “Female candidates say the election is another symbolic step”.

Women also said voter registration was hindered by bureaucratic obstacles, a lack of awareness of the process and its significance, and the fact that women could not drive to sign up.

He said 702,542 male and female voters forming 47.4 percent of the total registered voters participated in the elections in which 2,106 male and female candidates were declared winners. The rest of the positions are appointed by approval of King Salman.

“I have a voice and it matters”. The late King Abdullah, who died in January, issued a decree in 2011 authorizing women to vote.

More than 900 women ran for seats. Women posed for pictures behind the ballot box and yelled “Mabrook”, Arabic for congratulations, to one another as they exited.

But it was viewed as a step toward granting equal rights in the country, according to Hatoon al-Fassi, a coordinator for the Saudi Baladi Initiative, which worked to raise awareness about the elections.

Polls opened at 8:00 am (0500 GMT) and closed at 5:00 pm.

Saudi Arabia boasts modern infrastructure of highways, skyscrapers and evermore shopping malls. “I really do think it’s going to be a while before the women of the country really take advantage of this as much as they can”. They require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.