Women in Saudia Arabia have been able to take to the polls for the first time to not only vote but also run for public office in municipal elections.
Of the 130,000 Saudi women who registered to vote in the elections of the day it is believed that 82 per cent showed up at polling stations to make their vote count.
According to the AAP, 20 women have been elected (out of 979 who ran) and while this only represents one percent of the 2,100 municipal council seats.
“What we have started, we will continue,” said Rasha Hefzi, a Saudi businesswomen who won a seat in Jeddah.
“I think it’s great that several women won in different regions of Saudi Arabia,” writer Maha Akeel told The Guardian.
“It shows how much Saudi society has progressed on the issue of not only accepting, but actually supporting women in public office, and this could mean that more change is to come. I’m surprised. We expected maybe one or two women would win.”
While the elections mark a historical moment in the Islamic country’s history, Saudi women are still not allowed to drive and remain governed by strict guardianship laws which allow men control over the major aspects of their lives including marriage, travel and education.
The change to the voting laws came into place by Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah, who announced in 2011 that women would be allowed to participate in the municipal elections at the same time that announced the inclusion of females on an advisory council within the government.
