RIYADH: Segregated from male voters and unable to drive themselves to hustings, Saudi women begin their first-ever election campaign on Sunday, a tentative step towards better representation in the male-dominated kingdom.
Around 900 female candidates are standing in next month’s municipal election, a poll that also offers a chance for female voters to elect their officials for the first time.
"If we want to develop or reform our country we should put a woman in every decision-making level," says Nassima al-Sadah, a candidate in the Gulf coast city of Qatif for the December 12 vote.
Saudi Arabia, an Islamic absolute monarchy, has no female cabinet ministers and is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.
They have to cover themselves in black from head-to-toe in public, and require permission from a man in their families to travel, work or marry.
Restrictions remain in place despite a slow expansion of women’s rights under the late king Abdullah, who introduced municipal elections in 2005 and said women would participate this time around.
In 2013 he named women to the appointed Shura Council which advises the cabinet.
Abdullah died in January and was succeeded by King Salman, who has stuck to the election timetable.
Unlike other Gulf states, where women have had voting rights for several years, this will be the first time Saudi women have had a say in who gains office.
While al-Sadah expressed satisfaction at the number of female candidates, she said "very few" women have registered to vote.
Data cited by the Saudi electoral commission show about 7,000 candidates are vying for seats on the 284 councils.
According to the intekhab.gov.sa elections website, just 130,600 women have signed up to vote, compared to around 10 times that number of male voters.