Saudi women ask for half seats of the municipal councils

Saudi women have called on the government to appoint women at the Saudi municipal councils which half of its members will be elected, after Saudi women were banned from taking part in it.

Women activists in the field of defending women rights wrote to the chairman of the general committee for municipal elections Prince Mansour Bin Mut'b demanding appointing women in the main municipal councils, according to woman activist Hatoun al-Fasi. She added that want members appointed in all municipal councils to be women because they do not want symbolic representation through appointing one woman here and one woman there.

A professor of history at King Saud university said that women want to get the maximum possible "and we do consider that as our right." Partial municipal elections in Saudi Arabia will be held on February 10th in Riyadh and will be held on three phases that end on April 21. Half members of the 178 municipal councils will be elected in 13 areas in the Kingdom, where the other half will be appointed. Women who represent more than 50% of Saudi population are banned from taking part in the elections which are the first of its kind in the kingdom.