Saudi Arabia: First woman councillor elected

Thousands of Saudi women voted for the first time on Saturday in a landmark election that also saw female candidates.

Ms Oteibi won a seat on the council in Madrakah in Mecca province, the president of the election commission, Osama al-Bar, told the official SPA news agency.

“I voted for a man, but I hope a woman will win”, she said.

For the first time ever, women in Saudi Arabia have voted in an election.

Such is the low public expectation for any rapid changes despite the election, which was set in motion by the late King Abdullah as part of reforms that included adding women to the Shura Council that advises the kingdom’s rulers.

Even as women were allowed to run for office, candidates were forced to campaign from behind partitions or get a man to give speeches on their behalf.

A strict separation of the sexes in public facilities meant that female candidates could not directly meet the majority of voters – men – during their campaigns.

Though women make up just 10 per cent of registered voters, the right to simply cast a ballot sends a wider message to society, she said. Fearing reprisals, many candidates have forgone public campaigning, opting instead to reach out to voters through social media.

Mozah Alotalbi, who lives in the eastern city of al Khobar, described going along to vote with her mother and three sisters as a “unique” feeling.

Polling stations are also segregated by gender, with only 424 of the 1,263 polling stations reserved for women. “Women have the right to submit their candidacy for municipal council membership and have the right to take part in submitting candidates in accordance with Shariah”.

In major urban centres such as Riyadh and Jiddah, opposition to women’s participation was mostly confined to hard-line clerics and traditionalists.

It’s not easy to find a voter before the most closely watched election in Saudi Arabia’s history.

Despite their newly-given right to suffrage, however, only 130,000 women had reportedly registered to vote, out of 1.5 million registrants.

The races at hand – more than 3000 municipal council seats across the kingdom – have no influence over decisions by Saudi rulers on social policies or in any other key areas.

One-third of council seats are appointed by the municipal affairs ministry, leaving women optimistic that they will be assigned some of them.

Some male voters said they lacked information about the female candidates.

But women still face many restrictions.

This includes about 119,000 women, out of a total native Saudi population of nearly 21 million. There are still a number of restrictions on women, with marrying, working and traveling requiring the consent of a male family member.

In another story, reflecting the deeply-embedded barriers that women face to equal rights, it challenged a memo at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that issued a “harsh” warning against men and women meeting together in staff meetings, ordering them, instead, to meet via at “TV circuit system”, typically used absurdly when male professors teach female students.

A slow expansion of women’s rights began under Salman’s predecessor Abdullah who announced four years ago that women would join the elections this year.