Saudi Women Increasingly Vocal in
Demanding Participation
(Ed.
Mahjubah)
Saudi women’s rights activists may
be well aware of the social constraints on improving their status
in the ultraconservative kingdom, but they are becoming
increasingly vocal in demanding participation.
The calm that had marked the
run-up to landmark municipal elections, postponed from November to
February, has been shattered by successive announcements by women
of their intention to stand.
Fatima al-Khreiji became the third woman to throw her hat in the ring even
though it remains unclear whether women will have the right to
participate in the first-ever nationwide ballot to elect half the
members of 178 municipal councils.
“I want to focus on single,
divorced and widowed women’s issues, their problems and needs. I
want to help ordinary women, not the financially privileged,”
Khreiji told the Saudi daily ‘Arab News’ .
Khreiji, who works in special
needs education, joined another two women - Nadia Bakhurji and
Fatin Bundagji - in forming the vanguard of declared candidates
for an election in which they might not even be allowed to vote.
Bundagji, who heads the women’s
empowerment department in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, said last month that she would stand.
“I am already working on my
candidacy program with the help of my fellow women,” she said.
Bakhurji had preceded her,
becoming the first woman to declare she was standing and bringing
the issue of female participation to the forefront of the election
debate.
Some reactionary opinions appeared
in response, baring the depth of conservatism in the oil-rich
desert kingdom.
Opposition to women’s rights is
not deterring activists from intensifying their push for
enfranchisement.
A session dedicated to the
“cultural role of women,” in the first “Saudi intellectuals’
convention,” recently held in Riyadh, heard forceful comments from
female participants sitting in a separate room.
“You talk about enhancing our role
in society, but you are in fact marginalizing us even during this
very debate,” the voice of Suhailah Zain al-Abedin thundered from
an unseen location.
“We did not have the chance to
participate. Workshops are led by men ... most papers are
presented by men ... what is the point of our presence here?” the
member of the National Human Rights Association (NHRA) asked
angrily.
But while some of the 100 male
participants were busy answering their noisy mobile phones,
dismissing Zain al-Abedin’s comments, others gave her an approving
round of applause.
A paper prepared by writer
Abdullah al-Ghezami stressed that securing a cultural role for
women should start with a “man’s admission that a woman knows as
much as he does, and can do as much as he can.”
Another seminar, held a few
kilometers away from the intellectuals’ convention, to discuss the
forthcoming municipal elections saw a member of the Shura
(consultative) Council endorsing female participation in the
ballot.
