“Elections" in Saudi: late, sexist and patronizing
October 22, 2004
Surely it didn't come as much of a surprise to anyone when the Saudi government recently decided that "democracy" (or rather, an extremely limited form thereof) is really only for men. In the "elections" that will take place between February and April 2005, it was announced by the Minister of Interior, Nayef bin Sultan, that only men would be allowed to participate in the vote for the municipal councils. Women are clearly not considered mentally capable of making such choices.
If that weren’t frustrating enough, the government has now added insult to injury by announcing that women could be appointed to municipal councils, rather than elected. In other words, not only are women not considered capable of making decisions in an electoral context, but neither are most men, who apparently cannot be trusted to choose women for public office - should they ever be allowed to present themselves.
1425 years after Islam gave women a great number of rights not enjoyed in the West until well into the twentieth century, Saudi women have been transformed into amorphous forms with no voice, no presence and seemingly no viable future. The scary part about Saudi Arabia is that this is not even the worst aspect of the country: the prejudice goes beyond the confines of sexual discrimination and into every aspect of life.
It is easily arguable that there are many more pressing matters in the Arab world than achieving direct, representative democracy, especially when a majority of the region’s 300 million people now live in conditions befit for serfs in the time of czars. If we could begin with equal rights, equal shares in the region's wealth, and true justice, in all senses of the word, then democracy might not seem so unattainable.
