Saudi women candidates begin first election campaigns
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RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi women began their first-ever campaigns for public office on Sunday, in a step forward for women's rights in the conservative kingdom's slow reform process.
More than 900 women are standing in the December 12 municipal elections, which will also mark the first time women are allowed to vote.
Ruled by King Salman, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has no elected legislature but has faced intense Western scrutiny over its rights record.
The country's first municipal elections were held in 2005, followed by another vote in 2011, but in both cases only men were allowed to participate.
"We will vote for the women even though we don't know anything about them," Um Fawaz, a teacher in her 20s, said in Hafr al-Batin city.
"It's enough that they are women," she said.
The absolute monarchy, which applies its strict interpretation of Islam, has faced widespread criticism for its lack of equal rights.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive. Women must also cover themselves in black from head-to-toe in public and require permission from male family members to travel, work or marry.
