The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has yet to provide any convincing justifications for its decision to ban women’s participation in the coming municipal elections scheduled for February. The claim that elections are new to Saudi society may have some validity but at the same time, elections are new to all Saudis, both men and women. Instead of banning women from standing for office and voting by using shaky justifications, we should involve all citizens and give the experiment a chance to develop naturally. It would be after doing so that we could understand the advantages and disadvantages and work to enhance the former and transform the latter. Were we to follow this course, we would be able to make a rational judgment and know whether women’s participation was justified or not.
If we need more time to prepare for this new experiment — as some argue, using it as an excuse to ban women — then why don’t we need more time to prepare men for what is equally new to them? The time constraint excuse is also just another ploy to justify the ban. Why is there enough time for men to prepare but not enough for women? The process for both is the same.
Coming up with these weak justifications is not right for us at present. Elections are important insofar as they involve us in choices which affect us and, for that reason, every citizen should be allowed to exercise his or her rights and be looked upon as a member of civilized society. We should not overlook that Saudi Arabia is very much in the international spotlight at present; the world is watching closely to see how we deal with such matters. Giving women greater freedom to participate in public life would make a powerful statement. We face a dilemma at this point and must work hard to alter the situation we find ourselves in. Our efforts to improve our image abroad should begin by removing all bureaucratic hurdles and administrative constraints put on women’s participation in public affairs and by treating women’s participation in the elections as a national issue.
Those who oppose women taking part in the elections have only come up with weak justifications for their opposition. Islam guarantees the rights of both men and women, including the right of choice, expression and work under guidelines set out for both sexes. It is unfortunate that the guidelines concerning women have been misused to justify men’s failures and a lack of willingness to give women the rights that Islam guarantees them as fully competent human beings who are the equal of men.
At a recent Ministry of Education symposium, only men were invited to participate even though women comprise half the ministry’s employees. When I asked about reasons for excluding women, I was told that women’s participation requires exhausting and time-consuming preparations. If this is the attitude and behavior of a ministry whose employees are half women, then obviously it will have no difficulty in finding a way to deny women their rights.
