Saudi Arabia, women began their first-ever campaigns for public office today in a step forward for women’s rights in the conservative kingdom’s painfully slow reform process. More than 900 women are contesting for the December 12 Municipal elections, which will also mark the first time women are allowed to vote.
The oil-rich Saudi Arabia has no elected legislature but has faced intense Western scrutiny over its rights record. The country’s first municipal elections were held in 2005, followed by another vote in 2011, but in both cases only men were allowed to participate.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive. Women must also cover themselves in black from head-to-toe in public and require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.