Move Over, The Saudi Suffragettes Are Here

The kingdom might still have a long way to go but the right to vote and elect women to office deserves recognition. After all, didn't all movements towards gender equality start similarly, asks Deepti Sreeram.

- Deepti Sreeram

It Is a common adage. Every time a woman’s rights group in India questions existing patriarchal standards, often there is an immediate response: ‘at least, this isn’t Saudi’ or, ‘did you know that women in Saudi have it worse?’ Drawing such parallels is not surprising, given that much of our own feudal society is quick to look the other way every time someone name drops ‘gender’. The burden of this ‘other way’ often rests on the shoulders of Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia. Not that the reference is entirely off the mark given that the country still continues to believe that women must be protected by a male guardian. however, with the kingdom striding into its ‘suffragette’ moment, perhaps, a new day has come.

On 14 December 2015, when the women of Saudi Arabia, clad in their traditional attire Abayah, exercised their voting rights and elected women for municipal council elections for the first very time. It seemed that history had got a makeover. “This is not the first time in a way because women have been elected to the Chamber of Commerce and the Shura Council. But, yes, at the level of municipal council elections, this is a first,” says Khaled Al Maeena, former editor-in-chief, Saudi Gazette. “I was impressed with the turn out and it was a pleasant surprise seeing women conduct election campaigns enthusiastically through social media. Not only did they elect 17 women, in some places, the number of votes that women candidates secured was higher than their male counterparts.”