Saudi Arabia: Welcome To The 21 Century

Yesterday, the Saudi Arabia Monarch gave women the right to vote:

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Sunday granted women the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, the biggest change in a decade for women in a puritanical kingdom that practices strict separation of the sexes, including banning women from driving.

While this does not mean immediate freedom for women, it's an important first step in providing them with more liberty. This development comes in the midst of a critical time in the middle east:

“There is the element of the Arab Spring, there is the element of the strength of Saudi social media, and there is the element of Saudi women themselves, who are not silent,” said Hatoon al-Fassi, a history professor and one of the women who organized a campaign demanding the right to vote this spring. “Plus, the fact that the issue of women has turned Saudi Arabia into an international joke is another thing that brought the decision now.”

There's still a question of how much this will change the social environment. While they have instituted this law, it might just be for show. There are still a lot of customs that prevent women from having full liberty in life. There might be another purpose:

Some analysts described the king’s choice as the path of least resistance. Many Saudis have been loudly demanding that all 150 members of the Shura be elected, not appointed. By suddenly putting women in the mix, activists feared, the government might use the excuse of integration to delay introducing a nationally elected council.

Someone who knows more about women's rights than me had this to say:

“[Today's announcement] is definitely an important step forward that there is a promise that women will be allowed to vote in the next municipal election, but not a promise that means anything for the election happening now,” Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, told ABC News.

“This announcement does nothing to address the systematic and institutional discrimination against women which includes not only no right to drive, but no right to make decisions about their everyday lives, including the right to seek an education, the right to employment, the right to travel, the right to open a bank account, even the right to obtain medical care without the permission of a male guardian,” she said.

There is still a reality:

"It's a mixed feeling. On one hand he opens the door for her and on the other hand she is still banned from driving," said Mohammad Fahad Qahtani, a college professor and human rights advocate. "It doesn't save her from horrible treatment by government agencies and the courts. It's a symbolic gesture, but it is in no way enough to improve the lives of women."

So the way I see this, it seems like a symbolic measure rather than a landmark law. Yeah, women are gaining the right to vote, but that doesn't mean that it is instantly going to change society. If anything, it marks a victory in a much longer war to get women on equal standing in Saudi Arabia.