Feudal Saudi monarchy makes one small concession to women’s rights

From the International Report delivered to the CPGB-ML’s central committee on 1 October

At long last Saudi women are to have the right to vote and to run in municipal elections. It is a start, as the medieval regime struggles to maintain its authority against the tide of the Arab spring.

However, as well as continuing to be barred from state elections and office, women have to have their male relatives’ permission not only to stand but even to vote. And this reform is not due to be implemented until 2015. Fathers or husbands still control whether women can travel, work, receive health care, attend school or start a business.

The ban on driving or going out in public without male chaperones remains. Women lawyers are not allowed to appear in court, and a reform proposed recently to permit female shop assistants to be employed for the sale of women’s undergarments was abandoned as a step too far.