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Women in
Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in future municipal
elections, King Abdullah has announced.
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| Saudi women face severe restrictions in their working and personal lives |
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."
The BBC's
world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan says it is an extraordinary
development for women in Saudi Arabia, who are not allowed to drive, or to
leave the country unaccompanied.
She says
there has been a big debate about the role of women in the kingdom and,
although not everyone will welcome the decision, such a reform will ease some
of the tension that has been growing over the issue.
Saudi
writer Nimah Ismail Nawwab told the BBC: "This is something we have long
waited for and long worked towards."
She said
activists had been campaigning for 20 years on driving, guardianship and voting
issues.
Another
campaigner, Wajeha al-Huwaider, said the king's announcement was "great
news".
"Now
it is time to remove other barriers like not allowing women to drive cars and
not being able to function, to live a normal life without male guardians,"
she told Reuters news agency.
Correspondents
say King Abdullah has been cautiously pressing for political reforms, but in a
country where conservative clerics and some members of the royal family resist
change, liberalisation has been very gradual.
In May more
than 60 intellectuals called for a boycott of Thursday's ballot saying
"municipal councils lack the authority to effectively carry out their
role".
Municipal
elections are the only public polls in Saudi Arabia.
More than
5,000 men will compete in municipal elections on Thursday - the second-ever in
the kingdom - to fill half the seats in local councils. The other half are
appointed by the government.
The next
municipal elections are due in four years' time.
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