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Saudi women can run for office, but no photos on election posters
For a senior member of the Board of Ulema, women’s photos are “impermissible”. The women’s movement however wants to go further, demanding women have three seats reserved on municipal councils. Saudi businesswomen also want the right not to have a guardian when running their businesses.
Riyadh (AsiaNews) – Saudi women can run for local elections (four years from now) but will not be allowed to display their photos on election posters, this according to Sheikh Abdullah Al-Munea, a senior member of the Board of Ulema. “It is impermissible for a woman who wants to enter the next municipal elections to promote herself by hanging her photos in streets and malls like men candidates. This is permissible in closed women’s halls,” he was quoted as saying by the Al-Hayat newspaper.
King Abdullah’s decision to give women a chance to participate in local elections appears to have met already some resistance. Yet, the kingdom’s feminist movement continues to put pressure for change.
“We demanded that women hold at least three chairs in their local municipal council. Even if a woman did not win in the election, she still has the right to work for the municipality like men,” this according to Naila Attar, businesswoman and founder of the Baladi (My Town) campaign, Arab News reports. And that is not all.
Saudi businesswomen have also restarted a campaign to revoke the need for businesswomen to have a legal guardian, a step already taken by the Ministry of Commerce.
The “revolutionary” demand stems from the fact that under Saudi law women need legal guardians, mostly fathers, brothers, husbands and other male relatives, who must countersign women’s every public deed, and vouch for them in business transactions.
In an increasing number of cases, women have become victims of cheating and fraud by their legal guardians. This has led to the Commerce Ministry to change its rules. Now Saudi businesswomen want other ministries to do the same.