Saturday will be a day of
many firsts for
the ultraconservative Saudi kingdom. It's when Saudi women will go to
the polls and — in some cases — have the option to vote for other women
in municipal council elections.
It will mark the first time in history women in Saudi Arabia
can register to vote and run as candidates, even if that freedom is
restricted to local elections.
Noticeable anticipation began in late August, when women began
registering both
as voters and candidate. The kingdom had been shifting toward policy
change since 2011, when then-King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud
suggested women's suffrage could be down the line.
However, some remain wary of the development, arguing that
symbolic victories have the danger of distracting people from the real
issues on the ground. "Saudi Arabia has done a great PR job in selling
these elections as part of much-touted reforms," Ali al-Ahmed, director
of the
Institute for Gulf Affairs, told the
Washington Post. "The reality is that not much changes."
Others, like Haifa Alhababi, an architecture professor
running for a municipal seat in Riyadh, say even if progress is
sluggish, it's a move in the right direction. But, she said, many of her
female students are skeptical.
"I tell them this," Alhababi told the
Washington Post. "This
is a young country. It may seem developed because of the oil money. But
it's really just finding its way. This election is another step — even
if a baby step — for women. Don't discount it."
Alhababi is one of a number of women academics who count women's suffrage in Saudi Arabia as a landmark victory.
"We've been campaigning tirelessly to claim our
rights," Hatoon al-Fassi, a professor of women's history and a women's
rights activist, told the
Guardian in
August. "At the moment, we're recalibrating by taking our first steps
into the world of elections, voting and running for the council that
we've been demanding since 2004."
For now, women make up only around 14% of the 7,000
candidates seeking a seat and less than 10% of registered voters,
according to the Washington Post. Furthermore, purdah — or gender
segregation — is still enforced during political campaigning, making it
difficult for female candidates to reach the vast majority of the
electorate and for female voters to access information on the
candidates.
"We are not accepting anything less than being acknowledged, or granted our full legal capacities and rights,"
said Fawzia Abu Khalid, a professor of political sociology.
"The obstacles that women are facing are a reflection of
women's place in society. We don't have an independent body of
representation, we're not seen as autonomous, we are always seen next to
a man."
Saudi Arabia still requires male permission for women to work or, in some cases, even get
surgery.
"No matter whether you're divorced from him, or he disappears, or dies,
your legal status is warped. A woman is only identified through her
main guardian after she's married: her husband."
Still, Khalid said she is hopeful.
"I think there is the realization from different groups,
including the conservative groups, that what happened in the past, where
their voice was the only one represented in society, would no longer
continue," she said.
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