Saudi Women Permitted to Vote Beginning in 2015
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah declared on September 25 that women will be allowed to vote and run in local elections as of 2015—though they will not be allowed to vote in next week’s municipal elections. Saudi Arabia has no elected parliament, and only began holding municipal elections in 2005. Only half the seats on the municipal council are currently determined by elections. On the same day that King Abdullah announced that women will be given voting rights, Najla al-Hariri, an advocate against Saudi Arabia’s driving ban, was questioned for continuing her campaign for women to drive, and is set to face trial next month.
The issue of women’s rights is central to the future of the movement for democratic change that is sweeping the Arab world. Saudi Arabia was the lowest ranking country in Freedom House’s assessment of women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa, which compared women’s rights across 17 countries and one territory in the region. Women are still relegated to second-class status in Saudi Arabia—not allowed to travel, get medical operations, marry, work or drive without permission from a male guardian. Gender segregation is pervasive and strictly enforced, and women are unable to represent themselves in court without their male guardian. Since 2008, the Saudi government has made numerous pledges to repeal or relax the prohibition on women’s right to drive, yet these promises have not been fulfilled and Saudi Arabia is still the only country in the world that bans women from driving. In May 2011, women’s rights activist Manal al Sharif was arrested and detained for more than a week after posting a YouTube video of herself driving.
Freedom House welcomes the move by King Abdullah as a step forward for women’s rights in Syria, but acknowledges that there are still very problematic policies in place that subjugate and discriminate against women. The Saudi authorities must engage in true and meaningful reform, and must start by allowing women to exercise their basic right to freedom of movement.
The issue of women’s rights is central to the future of the movement for democratic change that is sweeping the Arab world. Saudi Arabia was the lowest ranking country in Freedom House’s assessment of women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa, which compared women’s rights across 17 countries and one territory in the region. Women are still relegated to second-class status in Saudi Arabia—not allowed to travel, get medical operations, marry, work or drive without permission from a male guardian. Gender segregation is pervasive and strictly enforced, and women are unable to represent themselves in court without their male guardian. Since 2008, the Saudi government has made numerous pledges to repeal or relax the prohibition on women’s right to drive, yet these promises have not been fulfilled and Saudi Arabia is still the only country in the world that bans women from driving. In May 2011, women’s rights activist Manal al Sharif was arrested and detained for more than a week after posting a YouTube video of herself driving.
Freedom House welcomes the move by King Abdullah as a step forward for women’s rights in Syria, but acknowledges that there are still very problematic policies in place that subjugate and discriminate against women. The Saudi authorities must engage in true and meaningful reform, and must start by allowing women to exercise their basic right to freedom of movement.
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