Saudi Arabia: women vote for first time in local elections

[rooster59]

Saudi Arabia: women vote for first time in local elections

Women are getting to vote for the first time ever in Saudi Arabia.

Female candidates are also running in the local polls, in what is seen as an early step towards gender equality in the deeply conservative Islamic kingdom.

Online taxi company Uber is offering women a free lift to polling stations.

Saudi Arabia is the only country that bars women from driving and requires them to have a male “guardian” who can stop them travelling, marrying, working and from some medical procedures.

It is also the last country in the world to allow women to vote except for the Vatican City, where male cardinals elect the pope.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-12-12

[NongKhaiKid]

The BBC reported that female candidates had to do their electioneering from behind a screen or have a male represent them in presenting their platform.

What's any lady elected going to do when attending meetings where there will be males who are not her family members present ?

Will she have to be accompanied by a male relative who can order her what to say, do and vote for or against ? Will she have to sit behind a screen in any committee room or even in a separate room and what happens if there's any public type forums ?

[geriatrickid]

Meanwhile, the world is in a tizzy over Trump's opinions which have not infringed upon anyone's human rights. Go figger.

[Dustdevil]

The BBC reported that female candidates had to do their electioneering from behind a screen or have a male represent them in presenting their platform.

What's any lady elected going to do when attending meetings where there will be males who are not her family members present ?

Will she have to be accompanied by a male relative who can order her what to say, do and vote for or against ? Will she have to sit behind a screen in any committee room or even in a separate room and what happens if there's any public type forums ?

Yes. And they also have to watch any male university lecturers on a CCTV screen. They can't be in the same room.

[jesimps]

What's the world coming to? They'll be letting them into the polling stations next.

[NongKhaiKid]

After my original post the BBC updated their report as counting the ballots began and they said it wasn't expected female candidates would win many if any seats !

Now there's a major surprise.

[elgordo38]

The BBC reported that female candidates had to do their electioneering from behind a screen or have a male represent them in presenting their platform.

What's any lady elected going to do when attending meetings where there will be males who are not her family members present ?

Will she have to be accompanied by a male relative who can order her what to say, do and vote for or against ? Will she have to sit behind a screen in any committee room or even in a separate room and what happens if there's any public type forums ?

Would you quit talking about the Bush family's friends in this manner? Yes they should be dancing in the streets to celebrate their minor victory BUT they are not allowed to dance and in this case it takes two to tango. If the women dance together they could be stoned for harboring "feelings" for each other.

[micmichd]

"except for Vatican City", a Farang country

[ggt]

This is huge!

After thousands of years of being treated as a slave like possession...they have some legitimate power to change the male dominated society...

Now they have been empowered to tackle social issues...many of which would be considered inhumane treatment in most of the civilized world...

Good on um! You go girls!

[daveAustin]

Excuse the French, but what a sh1thole! Yeah this is one step forward, but...

Without oil that place would be NOTHING!

[jacky54]

How can they tell if somebody voted already- they all look alike

[micmichd]

Some women have a signature, and some have fingerprints.

To me, all Farangs look the same.

[chuckd]

How can they tell if somebody voted already- they all look alike

Just like in Iraq. The old purple thumb trick.

[chuckd]

Just discovered this on Drudge Report

-------------------------------------------------------------------

'Proud' Saudi women win seats in historic vote

AFP By Abdul Hadi Habtor

2 hours ago

Riyadh (AFP) - At least nine women won municipal council seats in Saudi Arabia's first ever election open to female voters and candidates, officials said Sunday, in a milestone for the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.

"Even if it was only one woman, we're really proud of that. Honestly, we weren't expecting anyone to win," said Sahar Hassan Nasief, a women's rights activist in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

Article here: http://news.yahoo.com/woman-wins-seat-mecca-municipal-council-saudi-polls-054406124.html;_ylt=AwrXgCMdg21WGCYAJhDQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByM3V1YTVuBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMzBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

[ChoakMyDee]

The one on the left is very pretty.

[webfact]

Saudi Arabian vote in first female councillors in landmark election



RIYADH: -- Saudi Arabian women have taken another large leap forward in their path to greater equality with at least eight female candidates winning seats in Saturday’s local council elections, according to regional media.

The vote marks the first time both men and women could cast their ballot in Saudi Arabia.

Counting is still taking place so the number of female representatives may increase.

Participation among women was exceptionally high.

The president of the Saudi Arabian Municipal Election Committee, Gadiia al-Kahtani, said, “there were a lot of voters overall, about 600,000. Around 130,000 were female, which was around 24% of the total.”

More than 900 women ran for seats compared to almost 6,000 men.

Despite the landmark election, Saudi Arabian society remains strictly segregated with women facing many restrictions including a ban on driving.

-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-12-14

[oneday]

What a very sad barbaric country SA is. They have a very long way to go before anyone can call them civilized.

[chuckd]

What a very sad barbaric country SA is. They have a very long way to go before anyone can call them civilized.

How much time have you spent in their so called uncivilized society?

[DrTuner]

Wow, they have elections and can even vote. A distant dream here.

[spidermike007]

Can women be elected in a nation, where they have the most insecure men in the world? Men with so little self worth, so little self esteem, so little sense of themselves, that they are petrified of someone seeing their woman's face? Can a woman be elected in this toxic environment? This backwards state? It seems as if Salman is taking the country backwards, back into the middle ages. If it were not for oil, this might be the most irrelevant country in the world, and more than likely would not be allowed to exist, due to its continued financing of worldwide terror. I despise the Saudi Nation and its leadership. They are positively heinous.

[Skeptic7]

Now if they could only drive themselves to the polls!

Or go outside their houses without a chaperone...

or wear fashionable clothing...

or read a fashion magazine...

or go for a swim.

[Thaidream]

The only thing Saudi Arabia has going for it is oil and that is being depleted year by year. Otherwise they would still be living in the Stone Age. They are The most arrogant people I have ever met. As soon as they leave Saudi airspace off comes the Arab garb to include the women's coverings and on comes the Western clothes. When they used to come to Thailand- you could see the men sitting in the bars drinking alcohol and attempting to pick up the girls. Yet, they want everyone to believe that their faith in Islam is strong. Hypocrites.

[elgordo38]

After my original post the BBC updated their report as counting the ballots began and they said it wasn't expected female candidates would win many if any seats !

Now there's a major surprise.

Registered male voters outnumbered women by about 8 to 1. Allah would not look kindly on a man voting for a woman. When Google introduces the self driving car will women there still need a male accompanying them? A woman there must really believe in heaven. The opposite is right here on earth for them. As a male I continuously marvel at the perseverance and struggle that women go through even here in Thailand. They deserve to sit in the front of the bus. I constantly give praise that I was born a man. Women have definitely been short changed.

[chuckd]

CNN has reported in the past half hour that as many as 17 women might have been elected.

[tigermonkey]

Yesterday, I was watching a clip on television about some women from Saudi Arabia being granted the right to vote, and run as a candidate in municipal elections. They showed four women ( I think they were women) outside a polling booth, all dressed in identical black niqab and abaya. One could only see a portion of their eyes through their "eye slit'. They all seemed rather excited about what was happening.

The film clip concluded with them taking a "selfie" of themselves all together, despite the fact they all appeared identical. I could only think how pathetically funny and very sad this was

[Briggsy]

Window dressing from a backward, hateful and vicious culture.

Western media lapping it up pathetically.

[Andaman Al]

Saudi Arabia: women vote for first time in local elections

But their votes will only be able to be counted in 2025!

[jacky54]

In true Islamic style 4 womans vote should only be worth that of one man, lets keep it sharia.

[GOLDBUGGY]

After my original post the BBC updated their report as counting the ballots began and they said it wasn't expected female candidates would win many if any seats !

Now there's a major surprise.

Not really. When you consider women are given the right to vote but need a male relative to give them the right to go out and do that.

I would be more interesting in finding out how many woman actually did vote, compared to how many that actually did.