Saudi Women Vote Ban Remains In Place During Municipal Elections

RIYADH (Reuters) - Women in Saudi Arabia will not be allowed to vote in the long-delayed municipal elections to be held in September, the election commission said on Monday.

Saudi Arabia announced last week it will hold the elections, in the first political concession since protests sweeping the region reached the kingdom.

"There is nothing to stop the participation of the woman but this needs some preparations and we cannot make these preparations in all regions of the kingdom," the commission said in a statement.

Voter registration opens on April 23 and the elections will be held on September 22, an official at the commission told Reuters.

The Gulf Arab state is a monarchy ruled by the al-Saud family in alliance with clerics from the strict Wahhabi school of Islam. Women must be covered from head to toe in public and are not allowed to drive.

Saudi women are also subject to a male "guardianship" system which requires they show permission from their guardian -- father, brother or husband -- to travel or, sometimes, work.

Religious police patrol the streets regularly to ensure gender segregation and that women are dressed modestly.

Saudi Arabia held phased elections for half the seats on municipal councils in 2005 for the first time in over 40 years. They were held then in several stages and excluded women from voting or running as candidates.

Another round was due in 2009 but the government announced a delay of two years.

Since 2005 an already glacial reform process has slowed, although the king has continued to liberalize parts of the economy and outflank hardline clerics seen as sympathetic to al Qaeda.

Political parties are banned in Saudi Arabia and there is no elected parliament. The municipal councils, which have little power, are half filled by appointees of Saudi princes serving as provincial governors.

Minority Shi'ites have staged demonstrations in the Eastern Province, where most of Saudi Arabia's oil fields are located, but few Sunnis in major cities answered a Facebook call for protests on March 11.

(Reporting by Jason Benham; Editing by Diana Abdallah)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[bronwyn38]

05:22 PM on 05/21/2011

The US likes to point the finger at China on human rights issues while completely ignoring the dreadful inequalities suffered by women in Saudi Arabia. Couldn't be because of oil - of course not.

[Tina Skywriter]

11:24 AM on 03/30/2011

A suggestion for the perfect karma for some of the politicians currently trying to take away peoples' rights, destroy unions and defund women's health care. Spend your next lifetime as a Saudi woman wearing a black coffin shroud, polyester not cool cotton. When the oil runs out, back to tents in the desert with no air conditioning. No rights, no freedom, no job, no voting, no driving, no leaving the tent without a male relative.

[AZreb]

07:46 AM on 03/30/2011

Since Saudi Arabia is the U.S. BFF, we will do as we have done in the past - ignore human and civil rights, freedom of all and just pass this off as "Well, that is the way it has always been".

No time to register women and allow them to vote? Five months isn't enough time? No driving? A chosen male companion to ensure that a woman "behaves" in public?

Beware of woman power! When the Saudi women do demand equality, it will be a movement that might falter at times but will prevail.

[b1986]

02:11 AM on 03/30/2011

I wonder how much longer Saudi women will put up with this? I know Saudi's know of the outside world, the TV show "Friends" is one of the most watched shows in the country right now. I'm surprised they continue to put up with all the restrictions. I remember a story that was happy and sad at the same time about a young Saudi couple who was confronted by a member of the religious police after being caught holding hands in public. The officer punched the man in the stomach causing him to collapse to the ground. The woman in turn punched the officer so hard in the face that she knocked him out. Unfortunately they were caught after this happened, I'm not sure what happened to them, but I'm sure it wasn't good.

[MedinaM]

04:49 PM on 03/30/2011

I know women that live in Saudi Arabia and actually love it. In fact, I know women that moved there purposefully. So it can't be assumed all women don't like the way things run there. Personally, it would never suit me, but if there are those that like it, good for them.

[Tequilatarian]

11:04 AM on 04/27/2011

Women LIKE not being able to travel without permission of a male..including their own sons if no one else is available?

These are women who have been brainwashed.

[Anne Mccormick]

12:08 AM on 03/30/2011

is anyone here surprised?

[Andman0121]

10:22 PM on 03/29/2011

Ahhh our allies.

[MedinaM]

09:15 PM on 03/29/2011

Why are Islam and Muslims one of the tags? The main purpose of this article has nothing to do with the religion.

[Andman0121]

10:21 PM on 03/29/2011

Um, it has EVERYTHING to do with the religion (albeit one warped to an extreme by their government).

[MedinaM]

04:48 PM on 03/30/2011

Umm no it doesn't. It's a warped cultural perspective that they have...not a religious one. People need to stop confusing culture and religion.

[StephenMcArthur]

05:44 PM on 03/29/2011

Women are a huge threat to Saudi men, the basic patriarchal power structure that represses and demeans them. The undercurrent of women's empowerment in Saudi Arabia bubbles just beneath the surface and will eventually rise up along with other movements for change and self-determination in that country. It will just take time.

[OneUnknown]

05:30 PM on 03/29/2011

Double-standards.

Such discrimination should be punished with cleaves.

[StopMakingSense2]

05:00 PM on 03/29/2011

These people are as backward as the republicans want to be..

[Sol76]

02:34 AM on 03/30/2011

Don't blame the people. It is their rich and their foreign allies that made this oppression possible.

[Tequilatarian]

11:11 AM on 04/27/2011

Yeah...it is always someone else's fault, isn't it.

I have no doubt that if the rest of the world suddenly didn't need oil and money stopped pouring in, women's lives would become even worse in Saudi Arabia. When people have no power, they take it out not on the powerful, but the powerless who are afraid to fight back.

[Scent]

04:40 PM on 03/29/2011

Who cares?

They sell their oil to us so everyone knows human rights suddenly become obsolete. As long as our parasites make a profit women can go straight to hell for all our politicians care. Slavery in ASia and Africa, massmurder and massrape. Massacres costing millions of lives. ..... As long as the bottom line is ok - so are we. Even with that.

[Ukie3]

06:13 PM on 03/29/2011

So true.

[paleoimage]

04:29 PM on 03/29/2011

The "sand religions" were founded on the repression of women. The more traditional or conservative a Christian or Muslim society is, the more women are marginalized and discriminated against. One can only hope that religious belief and practices will eventually decline in the Middle East, and perhaps here at home. If you want to see how organized religion negatively impacts societies, simply compare the economies, healthcare, human rights and quality of life in the most religious countries - Egypt, Congo, Bangladesh, Senegal and the United Arab Emirates to the least religious nations Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Hong Kong and France.

[sensimilla]

04:09 PM on 03/29/2011

Saudi Arabia is a perfect example...of how much hypocrisy we have in our foreign policy. It is NOT based on spreading "democracy" or "human rights", and IS based on fascist c0rporate hegemony throughout the world.

I can't wait for the revolution in SA, and the extreme pain it will cause us.

[xMoonWalkerx]

11:51 PM on 03/29/2011

Ah... You love to inflict pain on yourself. If Saudi Arabia is screwed up, it must be because of kafir America . Its not because of their primitive tribal mindset and lack of civilization and modernity.Right?

[Jude Mcdonald]

03:48 PM on 03/29/2011

This will be one of the last countries to revolt in the current Democracy uprising that is spreading quickly. I am a woman who grew up here, I would not last one month in Saudi A. funny we are friends for oil with a terrible repressive Saudi family. I say DemocracyNow!

[Terri Lorz]

03:24 PM on 03/29/2011

I lived in Saudi Arabia and I loved the people and the country - but this is wrong. Women are so often marginalized and silenced. When will the Saudi Government stop their madness towards women. Terri Jo Lorz