By BBC, September 25, 2011
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| Saudi women face severe restrictions in their working and personal lives |
Women in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote
and run in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has announced.
He said they would also have the right to be appointed
to the consultative Shura Council.
The move was welcomed by activists who have called for
greater rights for women in the kingdom, which enforces a strict version of
Sunni Islamic law.
The changes will occur after municipal polls on
Thursday, the king said.
King Abdullah announced the move in a speech at the
opening of the new term of the Shura Council - the formal body advising the
king, whose members are all appointed.
"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society
in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with
our senior clerics and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as
members, starting from next term," he said.
"Women will be able to run as candidates in the
municipal election and will even have a right to vote.”
Cautious reformer
The BBC's world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan
says it is an extraordinary development for women in Saudi Arabia, who are not
allowed to drive, or to leave the country unaccompanied.
She
says there has been a big debate about the role of women in the kingdom and,
although not everyone will welcome the decision, such a reform will ease some
of the tension that has been growing over the issue.
Saudi
writer Nimah Ismail Nawwab told the BBC: "This is something we have long
waited for and long worked towards."
She
said activists had been campaigning for 20 years on driving, guardianship and
voting issues.
Another
campaigner, Wajeha al-Huwaider, said the king's announcement was "great
news".
"Now it is time to remove other barriers like not
allowing women to drive cars and not being able to function, to live a normal
life without male guardians," she told Reuters news agency.
Correspondents say King Abdullah has been cautiously
pressing for political reforms, but in a country where conservative clerics and
some members of the royal family resist change, liberalisation has been very
gradual.
In May more than 60 intellectuals called for a boycott
of Thursday's ballot saying "municipal councils lack the authority to
effectively carry out their role".
Municipal elections are the only public polls in Saudi
Arabia.
More than 5,000 men will compete in municipal elections
on Thursday - the second-ever in the kingdom - to fill half the seats in local
councils. The other half are appointed by the government.
The next municipal elections are due in four years'
time.
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