Gender equality in the kingdom takes a slow step forward as women prepare to stand and vote in municipal elections

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Hundreds of Saudi women began campaigning for public office on Sunday, in a first for women in the conservative kingdom’s slow reform process – even as two activists were disqualified.

More than 900 women are standing alongside thousands of men in the 12 December municipal ballot, which will also mark the first time that women in Saudi Arabia are allowed to vote.

“I’ve been eliminated as a candidate for the municipal elections,” Loujain Hathloul said in a message on Twitter. “I will be filing my objection via the appropriate channels.”

Saudi authorities detained Hathloul for more than two months after she tried to drive into the kingdom last December from the United Arab Emirates, in defiance of a Saudi ban on women driving.

She could not immediately be reached but earlier told Agence France-Presse that she wanted to run “to increase the percentage of women’s participation”.

Nassima al-Sadah, a human rights activist and would-be candidate in the Gulf coast city of Qatif, said officials informed her late on Saturday that her name had been removed from the list.

“I don’t know why,” said Sadah, who was trained in electioneering by the National Democratic Institute, a Washington-based non-profit organisation. Her campaign was on hold as she tried to clarify her case.

Ruled by King Salman, the oil-rich state has no elected legislature but has faced intense western scrutiny over its human rights record.

The country’s first municipal elections were held in 2005, followed by another vote in 2011, but in both cases only men were allowed to participate.

“We will vote for the women even though we don’t know anything about them,” Um Fawaz, a teacher in her 20s, said in Hafr al-Batin city. “It’s enough that they are women.”

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The absolute monarchy, which applies its strict interpretation of Islam, has faced widespread criticism for its lack of equal rights. Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are not allowed to drive. They must also cover themselves in black from head to toe in public and require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.

The late King Abdullah introduced the elections in 2005 and said women would participate in this year’s vote. In 2013, he also appointed women to the Shura council, which advises the cabinet. Abdullah died in January and was succeeded by Salman, who stuck to the election timetable.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest King Salman is implementing the electoral reforms set in place by his predecessor, King Abdullah. Photograph: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images

In other Gulf states, women have had some voting rights for several years.

About 7,000 people are vying for seats on 284 municipal councils in the vote, the Saudi electoral commission said. Only about 131,000 women have signed up to vote, compared with more than 1.35 million men, out of a native Saudi population of almost 21 million.

Aside from transport problems, women say registration to vote was hindered by bureaucratic obstacles and a lack of awareness of the process and its significance.

There is also disappointment at the performance of local councils and their limited powers – restricted to streets, public gardens and rubbish disposal.

Although the voting age has been lowered to 18 from 21 and the proportion of elected council members has increased to two-thirds, winning a seat remains a challenge for women in an electorate where male voters vastly outnumber them.

Sadah said she had been planning to be a particularly active candidate, with a social media onslaught supported by traditional banners and brochures, none of which would be allowed to carry her picture – a restriction that also applies to male candidates.

In Hafr al-Batin, in the east of the country, an official poster promoting the elections and containing a drawing of a man and a woman had been defaced, with the woman’s face slashed out.

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Because of the kingdom’s strict separation of sexes – which applies to election facilities as it does elsewhere in public – candidates wishing to meet directly with voters will have to meet women one day and men the next, with a male spokesman addressing the men.

Electoral democracy is still a novel concept in a country where tribal loyalties remain strong and the influence of wasta – knowing the right people – is overwhelming.

Saud al-Shammry, a 43-year-old Riyadh resident, said it was time for a new approach. “We strive for development and real change, free from tribal or family biases,” he said.

He said there was “a big possibility” he could vote for a woman, if her platform was convincing.

Ahmed, a government worker in Hafr al-Batin, saw no problem with having women candidates but suggested their participation in the vote was little more than window dressing. “Why not? They are just there to decorate the government anyway,” he said.