Celebrating the first female lawmakers in Saudi Arabia

It did not take a long time for Olympe de Gouges, the enlightened French woman who welcomed the French Revolution with more enthusiasm than anyone else did, to realize the twin values of freedom and equality were only reserved for men even after the revolution. Frustrated, Olympe de Gouges claimed that if a woman has the right to take on the guillotine, she also has the right to take on the podium as far as her expression does not impinge on public order. Her criticism against the reign of terror by the radicals boomeranged back to her as a sentence to the guillotine. It was only in 1944 that France allowed its women the right to vote, lagging far behind the U.S. (1920) or Britain (1928).

It was not easy for the new continent to come by female suffrage as well. In the U.S., female citizens had to stage violent protests for years from 1908, and a revised constitution was ratified in 1920 to guarantee them the right to vote. It was recognition of the hard work they did at factories and offices on behalf of the men sent to the battlefields during the First World War. Considering that black people had earned the suffrage 50 years earlier in 1870, the social status of women was truly abysmal in the U.S. Indeed, it took blood and tears to establish female suffrage for the country.

The very first election in which female voters took part was held in Saudi Arabia, the Middle Eastern country where female citizens are not even allowed to drive without a men’s presence. On Saturday, female citizens in Saudi Arabia were given the right to vote in local elections for the first time in 84 years, and at least 20 parliamentary seats are expected to go to female candidates this time. The registered female voters were only 2 percent of the total electorate, and females accounted for only 1 percent of the total number of elected lawmakers. However, as many as 979 women ran for office, and the female voting rate ran as high as 82 percent.

As the country is an Islamic nation imposing many limits to the social activities of women, there were many interesting scenes. The female candidates had to perform their speech behind a closed door as they are not allowed to look at men face-to-face. There were even separate polling booths for female voters. As the women had their face all covered up with the black niqab, it was impossible to tell which was which, let alone figuring out their election pledges. Be that as it may, Saudi Arabia did make a meaningful step towards democracy and political advancement this time. Just like the cases of many other countries, female suffrage will change the future of Saudi Arabia significantly.

shchung@donga.com