Saudi Arabian Women Will Be Allowed to Vote,
Run in Elections
Well, they aren’t allowed drive yet or leave the country
without a male chaperone, but Saudi Arabian women will
finally get some suffrage, after decades of external
pressure from rights groups.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah announced Sunday that women
will be given the right to vote and run in municipal
elections, according to the BBC. The country, which enforces
strict conservative Islamic law, has long prevented female
citizens from many rights enjoyed by men.
“Because we refuse to marginalize women in society in all
roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after
deliberation with our senior clerics and others…to involve
women in the Shura Council as members, starting from next
term,” Abdullah said, according to the BBC. “Women will be
able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will
even have the right to vote.”
As Saudi authorities have watched conservative and
oppressive regimes fall or be challenged by uprisings around
the Middle East this year, pressure from outside rights
groups has been accompanied by building pressure from within
the country. In June, women staged peaceful protests by driving
themselves around the country and taking video — an
act technically not illegal but very dangerous in a place
where females are far less empowered than men and could
suffer harsh punishment under Islamic law.
According to the BBC, King Abdullah has carefully pushed
for reform in the country — a difficult task in a place
where the rules are defined by conservative clerics and
members of the royal family who are resistant to change.
Activists and reform advocates welcomed the announcement
and said they would press forward on other reforms, which
they have been working on for decades.
“This is something we have long waited for and worked
towards,” Saudi writer Nimah Ismail told the BBC.
