Saudi Women Vote in Jeddah

Women in Saudi Arabia voted on Saturday and Sunday in the Saudi business capital of Jeddah, the men will vote on Monday and Tuesday:

Seventeen women and 54 men are competing for the 12 seats on the board of the Chamber of Commerce in the Saudi business capital, Jeddah.

Voting takes place over four days – for the female candidates voting was on Saturday and Sunday, while voting for the men is on Monday and Tuesday.

The vote is seen by liberals as a sign of progress.

BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says the election is of great symbolic importance in a conservative country where women’s lives are restricted in many ways.

Our correspondent says women’s activists are trying to put a brave face on the fact that the turnout at the weekend was low.

By Saudi standards, the chambers of commerce are modern, liberal institutions.

They have long prided themselves on the fact that they conduct often strongly contested internal elections.

But in general, voting is still a novelty in the kingdom – and for the many Saudis who want reform, progress has been painfully slow, our correspondent says.

Crossroads Arabia has much more on the interesting life inside Saudi Arabia.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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