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Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:12 pm
by Gob
Women in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has announced.
He said they would also have the right to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council.
The move was welcomed by activists who have called for greater rights for women in the kingdom, which enforces a strict version of Sunni Islamic law.
The changes will occur after municipal polls on Thursday, the king said.
King Abdullah announced the move in a speech at the opening of the new term of the Shura Council - the formal body advising the king, whose members are all appointed.
"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior clerics and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from next term," he said.
"Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15052030
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:49 am
by The Hen
Huzzah.
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:25 am
by dales
What about clitoral mutilation?
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 4:17 am
by loCAtek
That's Africa.
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 4:48 am
by Gob
dales wrote:What about clitoral mutilation?
Not for me thanks.
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:26 am
by BoSoxGal
Female genital mutilation takes place in 28 African nations, the Middle East (including Saudi Arabia), Asia, Southeast Asia, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe - even though it has been outlawed in most of the West (and also in several African countries, for that matter).
It is often associated culturally with Islam, though not always so - it has roots going back deep into human history. It is meant to keep women oppressed 'pure' by decreasing libido and causing sex to either lack in pleasure, or to be a source of excruciating pain. Sadly, the practice has become a source of limited power amongst the women of a culture, and so they are often the ones who most staunchly defend it.
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:37 pm
by rubato
re: the OP.
The right direction but too small a step to call it real progress.
The was only stripping the RC church (and the established protestant churches in England and N. Europe.) of all political and much social power that made the emancipation of women possible in the west; Islam will have to be similarly curtailed.
yrs,
rubato
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:40 pm
by quaddriver
What about clitoral mutilation?
and we thought OUR Diebold machines were tough...
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 5:35 pm
by dales
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 10:48 pm
by Gob
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country's ban on female drivers.
The woman, identified only as Shema, was found guilty of driving in Jeddah in July.
Women2drive, which campaigns for women to be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, says she has already lodged an appeal.
In recent months, scores of women have driven vehicles in Saudi cities in an effort to put pressure on the monarchy to change the law.
The sentence comes two days after the Saudi leader King Abdullah announced women would be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015.
Two other women are due to appear in court later this year on similar charges, correspondents say.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15079620
"We will shortly be landing in Saudi Arabia, please remember to set your watches back 500 years."
Re: Women get the right to vote!
Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 10:52 pm
by Long Run
Our roadways would benefit greatly if we banned women drivers here -- there'd be a 50% reduction in bad drivers.
