Saudi women to be given right to vote and stand for election in four years
Women in Saudi Arabia will be given the right to vote and to stand for election within four years, King Abdullah announced on Sunday, in a cultural shift that appears to mark a new era in the rigidly conservative Islamic kingdom.
The right to vote in council elections will not take effect until 2015, and women will still be banned from casting ballots in elections this Thursday.
However, the 87-year-old monarch has invited women to take part in the next shura council, a governing body that supervises legislation.
King Abdullah has been trying to implement what he has described as "cautious reform" in the fundamentalist state, where women are strictly denied civic freedoms or any public role.
— The Guardian
A Timespace showing the evolution of women's right to vote around the world. Cover image by Giacomo Ferroni. Under construction!
