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Women in Saudi Arabia Granted Right to Vote
September 26, 2011

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, seated on left, attends a Shura assembly in Riyadh on Sunday. Saudi Arabia will allow women to stand for election and vote, the king announced on Sunday, in a significant policy shift in the conservative Islamic kingdom. (Reuters Photo/Fahad Shadeed) Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, seated on left, attends a Shura assembly in Riyadh on Sunday. Saudi Arabia will allow women to stand for election and vote, the king announced on Sunday, in a significant policy shift in the conservative Islamic kingdom. (Reuters Photo/Fahad Shadeed)
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benjol48
5:31pm Sep 26, 2011

It's going to be a while before becoming reality ,with all the wealth and money belong to the Royal family .They are too scare to loose of their powers and become regular people.


TGIF
2:02pm Sep 26, 2011

“Plus, the fact that the issue of women has turned Saudi Arabia into an international joke is another thing that brought the decision now.” YOU GOT THAT ONE RIGHT !!!

Some damages have already been done in a country like Indonesia where the many faithful from rural areas returning from the Haj who have limited exposures in Saudi Arabia become first time experts by adopting similar puritanical attitudes into their own community. Scary indeed.


DrDez
1:59pm Sep 26, 2011

I have just read on Al Jaz that this is deffered until the next elections .... 2015


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King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Sunday granted women the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, the biggest change in a decade for women in a puritanical kingdom that practices strict separation of the sexes, including banning women from driving.

Saudi women, who are legally subject to male chaperones for almost any public activity, hailed the royal decree as an important, if limited, step toward making them equal to their male counterparts. They said the uprisings sweeping the Arab world for the past nine months — along with sustained domestic pressure for women’s rights and a more representative form of government — prompted the change.

“There is the element of the Arab Spring, there is the element of the strength of Saudi social media, and there is the element of Saudi women themselves, who are not silent,” said Hatoon al-Fassi, a history professor and one of the women who organized a campaign demanding the right to vote this spring. “Plus, the fact that the issue of women has turned Saudi Arabia into an international joke is another thing that brought the decision now.”

Even under the new law, it was unclear how many women would take part in elections. In many aspects of life, men — whether fathers, husbands or brothers — prevent women from participating in legal activities. Women’s education took years to gain acceptance after it was introduced decades ago.

Abdullah, 87, the monarch who has a reputation for pushing reforms opposed by some of his half-brothers among the senior princes, said the monarchy was simply following Islamic guidelines, and that those who shunned such practices were “arrogant.”

Political participation for women is a less contentious issue than granting them the right to drive, an idea fiercely opposed by some of the most powerful clerics and princes.

“It is not something that will change the life of most women,” said Fawaziah Bakr, an education professor in Riyadh, noting that she had just held a monthly dinner for professional women who were buzzing with excitement about the change.

“We are now looking for even more,” Bakr said. “The Arab Spring means that things are changing, that the political power has to listen to the people. The spring gave us a clear voice.”

The New York Times