SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Voters chose none of the 26 women who stood for election in Qatar’s first legislative elections on Saturday, disappointing candidates who had wanted to lend a voice for women and other Qataris in the Gulf monarchy’s political process.
The vote was for 30 members of the 45-seat advisory Shura Council while the emir will continue to appoint the remaining 15 members of the body that can approve a limited scope of policies for the small but wealthy country, which bans political parties.
“To have all men is not the vision of Qatar,” said Aisha Hamam al-Jasim, 59, a nursing manager who ran in Doha’s Markhiya district.
She urged Qatari women to start “voicing what they believe in” and vote for strong women candidates in future.
“For the first time in Qatar, this is the opportunity to take part in the political,” she said as people trickled into the polls earlier on Saturday.
Jasim, like fellow female candidates, said she had encountered some men who thought women should not run. Highlighting her administrative skills, she focused on policy priorities like health, youth employment and retirement.
“I just say: I’m strong, I’m capable. I see myself as fit as a man … If you want to see me as weak, that’s up to you, but I am not weak,” she said in the polling station where men and women had separate entrances.
While Qatar has introduced reforms to women’s rights in recent years, including allowing women to independently get a driving license, it has been criticized by rights groups for issues like the guardianship system, where a woman needs male permission to marry, travel and access reproductive healthcare.
Human Rights Watch in March said that when in 2019 women tweeted from an anonymous account about Qatar’s guardianship system, the account shut down within 24 hours after cyber security officials summoned one woman.
Qatar has one female minister: Public Health Minister Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari.
