Women given right to vote in Saudi

[Shak78]

:salam2:


Saudi king: Women will be allowed to vote and run for office


Women in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to vote and run for office in future municipal elections, King Abdullah announced Sunday.
In an address on Saudi state TV, the king said women will be allowed to nominate candidates for the next set of municipal elections. Although he did not use the word "vote," allowing women to take part in the nomination process would amount to voting within Saudi Arabia's system.
The country is holding municipal elections Thursday for the only the second time in nearly 50 years. The changes the king announced would go into effect for the next set of elections -- and it is unclear when those might take place.
Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider called the announcement "great news."
"Women's voices will be heard finally," she said. "Now it's time to remove other barriers like not allowing women to drive cars and not being able to function and live a normal life without a male guardian."
The White House also hailed the announcement.
"We welcome Saudi King Abdullah's announcement today that women will serve as full members of the Shura Council in the next session, and will have the right to participate in future elections," it said in a statement. "These reforms recognize the significant contributions women in Saudi Arabia make to their society and will offer them new ways to participate in the decisions that affect their lives and communities." The move, according to the White House, is "an important step forward in expanding the rights of women in Saudi Arabia."
King Abdullah's announcement followed increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia to allow women to vote.
"Since we reject to marginalize the role of women in the Saudi society, in every field of works, according to the (Islamic) Sharia guidelines, and after consultations with many of our scholars, especially those in the senior scholars council, and others, who have expressed the preference for this orientation, and supported this trend, we have decided the following," the king said, according to an English translation of his remarks released by the Saudi government.
First, he announced, women will be allowed to participate in the Shura council, the Consultative Council appointed by the king.
The U.S. State Department says there are already some women on the 150-member Consultative Council. In 2010, "the number of female advisers on the Consultative Council increased from 10 to 13," the U.S. State Department said in its human rights report on Saudi Arabia, citing "local sources."
The king also announced Sunday that, "As of the next session, women will have the right to nominate themselves for membership of Municipal Councils, and also have the right to participate in the nomination of candidates with the Islamic guidelines."
Elections for those councils were held in 2005 for the first time since 1963. Only men were eligible to vote, the U.S. State Department says.
Another set of elections was scheduled for 2009 but was delayed repeatedly -- ultimately being scheduled for this week.
Earlier this year, Saudi women activists wrote the government requesting that women be allowed to vote and be candidates in the municipal elections, according to the U.S. Library of Congress.
Saudi Arabia's "Minister of Municipality and Rural Affairs declared that Saudi women will not be able to either run or vote in this election," the Library of Congress reported on its blog. "According to news reports, the Minister stated that the ban on women's participation is due to the lack of segregated voting facilities."
When election centers opened in April for voters to register, some groups of women turned up and were turned away. It was one of the first public acts of the "Saudi Women Revolution," a movement set up to campaign for the end of Saudi Arabia's discriminatory laws.
In June, a number of Saudi women took to the streets -- in cars -- to demand the right for women to drive and travel freely in the country.
There are no specific traffic laws that make it illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia. However, religious edicts are often interpreted as a prohibition of female drivers. Such edicts also prevent women from opening bank accounts, obtaining passports or even going to school without the presence of a male guardian.
Authorities stopped Manal al Sharif, 32, for driving a car May 21 and detained her the next day. She said she was forced to sign a form promising not to drive again and spent a week in jail. Her case became a rallying cry for women activists.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/25/world/meast/saudi-women-vote/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

[septithol]

I should point out that it is a drain on any economy to have people employed in 'needless jobs' which are jobs that really do not provide any truly needed goods or services. A lot of lawyers fall into this category (tee hee). But I would say that having huge numbers of men in Saudi Arabia who are hired to do nothing but drive around women, most of whom are probably capable of driving themselves, is a huge drain on the economy of Saudi Arabia. The money spent to hire all these men could be far better spent on something else.

 

[Hatty]

I have been intrigued by the fact that women in Saudi are not allowed to drive. I know that it has nothing to do with Islam. There were no cars at the time of the prophet so it would be impossible to find a Hadeeth related to women who drive cars.

But I had a chat once with a Saudi man and he explained to me one of the reason for example; a lady driver who gets involved in a car accident and she caused the death of a pedestrian. In this case, the lady should go to court and then to prison. And because of the social norms/culture of the country, it is not acceptable to have our women in prison as this will damage their reputation. So to avoid all of this, the driving ban is in place.

I think this situation in Saudi will be hard to change until the social norms of the country change.

But I think this reason is not good enough. there are many other situation where a woman can get involved in other types of accidents and she might end up in prison. It does not make sense to ban her from everything.

 

[Hard Rock Moslem]

Will this silence the Islamophobics? Islamic world should change for better including allowing what is just for our women but should do it Islamic way not after being told by the kuffars.

 

[esperanza]

I have been intrigued by the fact that women in Saudi are not allowed to drive. I know that it has nothing to do with Islam. There were no cars at the time of the prophet so it would be impossible to find a Hadeeth related to women who drive cars.

But I had a chat once with a Saudi man and he explained to me one of the reason for example; a lady driver who gets involved in a car accident and she caused the death of a pedestrian. In this case, the lady should go to court and then to prison. And because of the social norms/culture of the country, it is not acceptable to have our women in prison as this will damage their reputation. So to avoid all of this, the driving ban is in place.

I think this situation in Saudi will be hard to change until the social norms of the country change.

But I think this reason is not good enough. there are many other situation where a woman can get involved in other types of accidents and she might end up in prison. It does not make sense to ban her from everything.

well hope fully things are changing with yesterdays vote,,,,things have certainly changed from 20 years ago,,,and 10 and 5 so slowly change is taking place.

as for driving ..various arguments are given,,but they are worried letting women drive will lead to other behaviour such as free mixing

but the alternative as someone wrote is thousands of foreign drivers,,and since women should not be driving with non mahrams and most saudi women now drive alone with drivers,,how can this be better???

 

[غــرِيبْ الـدآر]

وعليكم السلام ورحمة الله وبركاته

:ma:

 

[septithol]

Hard Rock Muslim wrote:

Will this silence the Islamophobics? Islamic world should change for better including allowing what is just for our women but should do it Islamic way not after being told by the kuffars.

Hard Rock, I think this is a logical fallacy which is attacking not the argument, but the *source* of the argument. I will give you an example of this fallacy, suppose a doctor says that Bayer Aspirin works better than other brands of Aspirin. And I tell you that you should not listen to that doctor about Aspirin, because he is a bad man, he steals things from the store. Well, maybe he is a bad man who steals, but that doesn't really disprove what he says about aspirin. A bad man can sometimes say good things, and a good man can sometimes say bad things.

In this case, you seem to be saying that the Islamic world should reject everything said by kaffirs, not because what was said was necessarily bad, but because it was said by kaffirs. This is a logical fallacy, you should judge what was said, not who said it.

 

[queenislam]

Thank you!

:salam2:

Thank you
for sharing
this News brother.



~May Allah swt help,protect and guide all muslim~Amin!

Take care,
~Wassalam

 

[Asja]

Assalamua llaicum wa raahmatullah wa barakatuhu

Mashallah, Alhamdulillah. But I only pray to Allah that this will not couse free mixing between man and woman,and that with these given rights they will be given the same rights and restrictions regarding free mixing of man and woman, Inshallah.

May Allah protect and guide our Muslim Ummah. Ameen

Wa Allaicum saalam wa raahmatullah wa barakatuhu

 

[Hard Rock Moslem]

Hard Rock Muslim wrote:

Hard Rock, I think this is a logical fallacy which is attacking not the argument, but the *source* of the argument. I will give you an example of this fallacy, suppose a doctor says that Bayer Aspirin works better than other brands of Aspirin. And I tell you that you should not listen to that doctor about Aspirin, because he is a bad man, he steals things from the store. Well, maybe he is a bad man who steals, but that doesn't really disprove what he says about aspirin. A bad man can sometimes say good things, and a good man can sometimes say bad things.

In this case, you seem to be saying that the Islamic world should reject everything said by kaffirs, not because what was said was necessarily bad, but because it was said by kaffirs. This is a logical fallacy, you should judge what was said, not who said it.

As usual, you use logic to argue your points. But you are diverting the whole issue with this doctor and aspirin story. One proven bad doctor does not have any credibility or any moral ground to speak about truth. If the satan come and tell you a truth, will you believe? I'm sorry I shouldn't ask this question since you are not Muslim.

This is not fallacy, it is the fact. Islamophobia very prevalent in the west and every time a Muslim done something good, there is no headline. Once one nasty Muslim done one bad thing, it will not take long for the whole world to know. Sad to say, I find you do have some criteria of this "Islamophobe" things. Sorry, I may be wrong.

And, you have misquoted me. I never meant to say "Islamic world should reject everything said by kaffirs"... what I'm saying Islamic country should not change things just because kuffar countries asked to change or they will stage war over you. Every Islamic countries should analyse and only change things for the sake of Allah and the Prophet, not for George Bush or Obama or Islamophobians. The change must be to pleased Allah and the Prophet, and in accordance with Islamic teachings.

You may have misunderstood my statement when I said "Islamic way".

 

[msmoorad]

salaams to all

i would like to know from all of you who are applauding this:
how exactly will this benefit muslim women?
how exactly is it a step in the "right" direction?-bearing in mind that our real goal is to attain jannah.
how exactly will this mean that people will become more obedient to the commands of Allah ta'ala & practice upon the sunnah of Rasullullah(SAW)?

just because the lost sheep in the west say that something is good or they call it "progress" does not mean we muslims should also think the same way.

i would not be surprised to learn that this act will in fact only lead to more intermingling of sexes & more violations of the orders of Allah & the sunnah of Rasullullah(SAW)


and Allah ta'ala knows best
jazakallah

 

[JenGiove]

:salam2:

I have a question....why can't a woman in Saudi open her own bank account? She has the right, by Sharia Law, to do with her money as she sees fit...correct? so wouldn't it be the responsibility of the man to assist her in accomplishing that goal? That's not "giving permission", that's supporting.

 

[Shak78]

:salam2:

I was under the impression that Islam gave women the right to vote, was I wrong about this. I applaud it because it gives woman a voice to thier own issues, which are known better to women then to men. You don't have to intermingle to vote, there can be separate voting places as well.

 

[a_stranger]

Will this silence the Islamophobics? Islamic world should change for better including allowing what is just for our women but should do it Islamic way not after being told by the kuffars.

:salam2:
I agree with you brother , any change should be in accordance with islamic values and following the example of the prophet salla Allah alaihi wa sallam and sahaba , not just to be more modern....., i wonder why people dont discusse the problems of women in the west .......how they are being used in most horrible way........why trying to drag muslem women out of their homes and children ........the westren example failed to built secure homes , and happy
Childhood because they put women most of the time outside their homes ? I wonder why we should follow bindly? I hope that saudi women change for better but in an islamic manner.....

 

[a_stranger]

:salam2:

I have a question....why can't a woman in Saudi open her own bank account? She has the right, by Sharia Law, to do with her money as she sees fit...correct? so wouldn't it be the responsibility of the man to assist her in accomplishing that goal? That's not "giving permission", that's supporting.

Hi Jen , but she can who told you she need permission? Most of what they say about saudi wome are lies i mean in the media. They just try to attack islamic values.... We have some problems just as any other country have but i am sure we are AlahmduliAllah among the happiest women in the world because of the blessings of Islam.

 

[esperanza]

:salam2:

I was under the impression that Islam gave women the right to vote, was I wrong about this. I applaud it because it gives woman a voice to thier own issues, which are known better to women then to men. You don't have to intermingle to vote, there can be separate voting places as well.

women are supposed to have right to vote and freedom of expression..if this law is implemented in correct way..there should be no problem of mixing,,

 

[JenGiove]

Hi Jen , but she can who told you she need permission? Most of what they say about saudi wome are lies i mean in the media. They just try to attack islamic values.... We have some problems just as any other country have but i am sure we are AlahmduliAllah among the happiest women in the world because of the blessings of Islam.

:salam2:

Sister, the original article posted above said this:

There are no specific traffic laws that make it illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia. However, religious edicts are often interpreted as a prohibition of female drivers. Such edicts also prevent women from opening bank accounts, obtaining passports or even going to school without the presence of a male guardian.

Ecuse me, as I was posting the quote, I reread it and saw that they used the word "presence of" and not "permission of"...please accept my apologies....

*heads to the coffee maker to check that it has caffeinated coffee in it..

 

[a_stranger]

Dear sister no need to apologize , when i Opened my account they didn t ask for any gardian , may be the gardian is for girls under 18.

 

[esperanza]

Dear sister no need to apologize , when i Opened my account they didn t ask for any gardian , may be the gardian is for girls under 18.

when iopened mine ..i neededpermission and was very difficult,,,but maybe as im not saudi

 

[a_stranger]

:salam2: sister

I am not saying that everything in Saudi Arabia is perfect , they should treat all people kindly.