Winds of change: Saudi women don't need male nod to vote

Winds of change: Saudi women don't need male nod to vote

Women in Saudi Arabia will not require a male guardian's approval to run or vote in municipal elections in 2015, when women will also run for office for the first time. The Shura Council member Fahad Al Anzi told Al Watan newspaper that approval for women to run and vote came from the Saudi king. The country's Shura Council is an all-male consultative body with no legislative powers. Despite the historic decision by the king to allow women the right to participate in the elections, male dominated laws in Saudi Arabia remain largely unchanged. Women cannot travel, work, study abroad, marry, get divorced or gain admittance to a public hospital without permission from a male guardian.