Why we shouldn’t be quick to celebrate Saudi Arabia giving women the vote

Over the weekend Saudi Arabia held municipal elections - and remarkably, women were able to vote for the first time. The story was picked up all over the place and at least in headlines and imagery, was reported as a feel good story, and one of human progress.

Even the end of the otherwise excellent film Suffragette, which was released in October, anticipated this election in the end credits. In a sequence in which the years in which women got the vote in different countries were flashed on screen, Saudi Arabia appears last with “2015”.

There was just one problem: Saudi Arabia isn’t a democracy. Not anywhere close. We shouldn’t respond to Saudi suffrage with applause - a slow clap would be much more appropriate.

Democracy isn’t just the act of voting; it is made up of a number of interlocking pieces that need to be in place before a country is truly free. In Saudi Arabia, there is no meaningful freedom of expression, no free press, no personal autonomy and no (legal) political parties. And even if it did have these things, there’s still the small matter of the government being little more than a patronage network for the large royal family. If you want to get something done in Saudi Arabia, it is surely better to hope you know a prince than to run for office.

Saudi “democracy” comes under scrutiny in this year’s International Humanist and Ethical Union Freethought Report, which notes that the “rights to freedom of assembly and association are denied in practice. The government frequently detains political activists who stage demonstrations or engage in other civic advocacy.”

The situation is worse still for women in particular. In its 2015 report, the US Human Rights think-tank Freedom House painted a bleak picture:

“Women are not treated as equal members of society, and many laws discriminate against them. They are not permitted to drive cars or travel within or outside of the country without a male relative. [...] Saudi women seeking access to the courts must be represented by a male. The religious police enforce a strict policy of gender segregation and often harass women, using physical punishment to ensure that they meet conservative standards of dress in public.”

Freedom House also gives numerical ratings - and rated Saudi Arabia with its worst possible ratings on freedom, civil liberties and political rights. Despite this ‘election’, it says things have got worse since last year.

Perhaps the bleakest picture of this comes from this CBS News report, about how the women who did run were able to campaign in the election:

“Female candidates could also not directly address male voters, and had to either present their platforms from behind a partition, relying on projectors and microphones, or through male supporters and relatives presenting for them.”

It’s hard to imagine seeing those scenes playing out with inspirational music accompanying them.

Don’t get me wrong - the women inside Saudi Arabia who have agitated and campaigned for their right to vote in these elections are far braver than me, and have experienced a harder struggle than I ever will, and should be recognised for their achievements in getting this far.

But don’t for a moment think that Saudi Arabia has improved. It hasn’t offered its citizens democracy: It is a potemkin imitation, a two-dimensional film set in the desert. Though let’s hope though that these elections offered Saudi citizens at least a taste of democracy - so that maybe someday they’ll win the fight to experience the real thing.