The AP has been pushing this breathless take on the Saudis “allowing” women to vote for the first time—in a chamber of commerce election. Somebody catch me; I think I’m going to have a case of the vapors and faint from the excitement of it all.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Saudi women will be able to fully participate in an election for the first time in this ultraconservative Islamic kingdom, after the government ordered a local chamber of commerce to allow female voters and candidates.
The Jiddah Trade and Industry Chamber had rejected the nominations of 10 businesswomen to run for the chamber’s governing board. Trade Minister Hashem bin Abdullah Yamani overruled this decision, a Saudi official said Friday.
The move is a small but unprecedented step in Saudi Arabia, where women are under heavy restrictions. They are barred from driving a car while a male guardian must give permission for women to get an education or job.
See, it’s a “small but unprecedented step.” It’s a move forward. Women can vote—once again, I must pause to take deep breaths due to the excitement of the issue—in a local chamber of commerce election in Jiddah.
But wait, there’s more! Women were kinda sorta maybe allowed to vote, earlier this year, in another chamber of commerce election!
Earlier this year, businesswomen in the eastern city of Dammam were allowed to participate indirectly in the local commerce chamber election – but male guardians had to cast their votes for them.
I’m faint, faint I tell you, from the major steps forward Saudi Arabia is making in the department of women’s rights.
Women were prevented from voting or running in the country’s landmark municipal elections in the first three months of this year.
Okay, let’s review. Women cannot drive. They cannot vote. They cannot leave the house without a male guardian accompanying them. They cannot leave the country without their male guardian’s permission. They, uh, need an effing male guardian in order to do what nearly every other woman around the world does as a matter of course.
But now they can vote.
In a chamber of commerce election in Jiddah.
The mind reels at these giant steps forward. If they keep up this pace, in a couple of centuries, they’ll have reached 1945.
You’re being too generous. In a couple of centuries, maybe they’ll be in the 1800’s.
Actually, by then, they will have destroyed themselves. Or perhaps they would have run out of oil and have sold the women to a country that might actually free them.