At least four women won seats in Saudi Arabia's municipal poll Saturday in the kingdom's first election in which women could vote and run as candidates.
Salima bint Hazab al-Otaibi became the first woman elected to public office in the conservative Islamic country of Mecca in the count. Female candidates have also been elected to two other councils-two in Ihsaa governorate and one in Tobouk, according to Al Jazeera.
The country's strict public separation of sexes meant that during the campaign, female candidates could not directly address the majority of voters: men. Voter registration was also challenged by bureaucratic hurdles, inexperience with the process, and the fact that women are not allowed to drive, which restricted their ability to both register to vote and run as candidates, Reuters reported.
Despite the challenges, a total of 978 women ran for seats in Saturday's poll, compared to 5,938 men, BBC News reported. Around 130,000 women registered to vote, alongside 1.35 million men. Voter turnout has been declared historic, at around 25 percent.
"This is a new day. The day of the Saudi woman," Saudi women's rights activist and writer Hatoon al-Fassi declared in a tweet. While the poll was only for two-thirds of seats in municipal councils, without lawmaking or national powers, it has been called a landmark election.
Elections in general are unusual in the Saudi kingdom. Saturday was only the third time in history that Saudis had gone to the polls, BBC News noted. In fact, there were no elections from 1965 to 2005.
Under King Abdullah, who passed away in January, steps were taken for women to hold more public roles in Saudi Arabian society, according to Reuters. This includes encouraging female employment and enrolment at universities.
