A welcome step

The royal decree only goes into effect in 2015. Activists will have to be vigilant to ensure the implementation.

Women in Saudi Arabia now have the right to vote but who will drive them to the polls? The decision by the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, to allow women to stand for election and vote in the 2015 election is a welcome one, but the country still has a long way to go before women can be considered as equal citizens. The ban on women driving is indefensible, as is the requirement of permission from a male guardian before a woman wants to leave the country or even for certain medical procedures. The hope is that by granting women the right to vote is the first step in ensuring that they have the same rights as men in Saudi Arabia and that it is not merely a sop to weaken the brave activists of the country.

This unexpected decision is probably rooted in two different Arab movements. The more proximate one is the surprisingly widespread protest by women demanding the right to drive. What started as a Facebook protest against the arrest of a woman for driving, quickly spread as women took to the streets in their cars and agitated for a right that has been denied to them for no good reason. Second, the monarchy in Saudi Arabia must have been looking nervously at the spread of democracy in the Middle East. The Arab Spring uprisings have already taken down the dictatorships in Egypt and Yemen, while Syria and Bahrain are barely hanging on. Throwing this bone to the women of Saudi Arabia, while gradually introducing further reforms, may nip any potential rebellion in the bud.

While welcoming this decision, we should keep in mind that giving women the right to vote doesn’t actually change the power equation in Saudi Arabia. It merely means that women will be as free as men to vote in mostly meaningless elections. Citizens of Saudi Arabia are only allowed to vote in municipal elections and even then, half the seats are selected by the monarchy. Also, the royal decree only goes into effect in 2015, so for the next four years activists will have to be vigilant to ensure that the monarch does not stall the implementation of this decision.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2011.