Saudi women barred from voting

The Saudi interior minister has said women will not be allowed to vote
in the country's municipal elections starting in February 2005.

BBC News

Monday, 11 October, 2004, 16:26 GMT 17:26 UK
In response to a question about women's getting the vote, Prince Nayef
bin Sultan said simply: "I don't think that women's participation is
possible."

An election law published in August did not explicitly ban women from
voting.

This led many campaigners for women's rights to hope for a substantial
breakthrough for Saudi women.

The Associated Press quotes an unnamed Saudi election official as
saying that the main reasons for barring women from the election were
administrative.

The official told AP that there were not enough women electoral staff
to run women-only voter registration centres, while only a fraction of women
in Saudi Arabia had photo identity cards.

Absolute monarchy

The only previous Saudi elections were some municipal polls held in a
number of cities in the 1960s.

Registration for next year's election starts in November. Voting
starts in the capital, Riyadh, on 10 February and ends in the north of the
country towards the end of April.

Citizens over the age of 21 will be able to choose half the members of
municipal councils.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, governed according to a highly
conservative interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

The country is under severe pressure, internally and externally, to
reform its political system.

Women in the kingdom live with highly circumscribed rights. They are,
for example, not permitted to travel unaccompanied by male relatives or
allowed to drive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3734420.stm