Saudi women got right to vote and contest polls in 2011; read about historic policy shift

On this day in history, September 25, 2011, women in Saudi Arabia were granted universal suffrage as Saudi’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud announced that they now have the right to vote and be appointed to the consultative Shura Council. In the historic policy shift, the Islamic kingdom said that the ladies could now contest for the elections and take part in the sessions of the advisory council and can be elected to the local government offices for the first time. This led to the election of the country’s first 20 women to serve in more than 2,000 local government seats in Saudi’s third municipal elections held in December 2015 for the first time in history. 

Women entered the all-male governance system, although their election represented one percent of the roughly 2,100 municipal council seats, according to an Associated Press report. A wave of women was witnessed both in terms of voting and running as candidates as they waited outside polling stations in a huge turnout for the country’s elections. King Abdullah's historic reform took effect in 2015 that marked the significant cultural change in the conservative Islamic country’s political fabric.

In a state press address, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud said that because his administration refuses to marginalize women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, the nation has decided, after deliberation with the senior ulama (clerics) and others to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term. Further, in his televised speech delivered to the advisory body, the monarch said that women can run as candidates in the municipal election and vote. Granting women the right to ballot was met with great fervour by the country’s females. 

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“We are making history. I just made history,” AP quoted an excited candidate Karima Bokhary as saying after she cast her first ballot in a lifetime at a polling station in the capital Riyadh in 2015.

130,000 women registered to vote

The 50-year-old was among 979 women candidates vying for a seat in Saudi’s municipal council. At least 5,968 male candidates were reported running the elections according to AP’s report, and as many as 130,000 women registered to vote, in contrast to 1.35 million males. Shara Al-Qahtani, a 50-year-old  woman clad in abaya told AP reporters that women given the right to vote was a good step “for people and good for society, adding, “women are partners of men”. A 24-year-old English literature major, described voting as “a huge step for women in Saudi.” “If you look back at the history of women (in Islam), there are so many strong women,” she said. An additional 1,050 seats were also appointed to the women with approval from King Salman, who could use his powers to appoint female candidates if they didn’t win.

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