Saudi women vote for the first time in landmark election

[azurnoir]

Source: yahoo/ap

Thousands of Saudi women headed to polling stations across the kingdom on Saturday, both as voters and candidates for the first time in a landmark election.

Nearly 6,000 men and around 980 women are running as candidates for local municipal council seats. More than 130,000 women have registered to vote compared to 1.35 million men. The General Election Commission says there are at least 5 million eligible voters out of a population of 20 million, but the figure could be much higher.

The election, which does not have quotas for females, is widely seen as an incremental but significant opening for women to play a more equal role in Saudi society.

Candidate Latifa Al-Bazei, a 53-year-old public school principal, said her participation in the race felt like a continuation of her service to the community. She wants to see Saudi Arabia's majority youth population under 25 years old get more involved in their local communities.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/saudi-women-vote-first-time-landmark-election-064436061.html

[niyad]

1. I honour these brave women.

and this patriarchal bs society is one of our allies???

[brer cat]

2. Worth celebrating

even though it is a very small step forward. With all that is wrong in this patriarchal country any progress for women is an opening. I applaud the women who are candidates and wish them well.

[christx30]

3. This is amazing!

And after all the hard work and fighting these women have done to get this bit of equality, there are still people in this country that want to take away women's voting rights. It's astounding to read. Sickening.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. It will be a real landmark election when they can vote the House of Saud off the throne

Then the people will be free Arabians and not Saudis.

This is a good step in the right direction.

[inanna]

5. Recommended!

Thanks for posting.

[valerief]

6. Will the women be stoned to death if they don't vote the same as their husband owners? nt

[LanternWaste]

8. Doubtful. And no reports yet of women being force fed for voting, either.

Doubtful. And no reports yet of women being force fed for voting, either-- a practice they may have learned from the west.

[treestar]

7. Looks like they just got the right to vote.

Which puts them way behind most western societies. Though in the long term, about 100 years behind may not look like much, so it is progress. I rather wonder we have not heard of the struggle to get it - it would have been dangerous there for women to even ask for it.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/analysis-women-voting-saudi-arabia-151213055435453.html

More information there on how it happened.