DUBAI: Fathiya Al-Khamiri worries less about her chances of victory at the United Arab Emirates’ advisory council election on Saturday than whether any woman will win a seat.
It is the second time the UAE is holding an election to its advisory body, a type of parliament which is allowed to make recommendations to the rulers of the seven emirates but has no binding powers. Only 20 of its 40 seats are up for grabs, with the remainder being appointed by the rulers.
Khamiri told Reuters at the Dubai Ladies Club it was all but inevitable that a large chunk of the female vote — which makes up 46 percent of a handpicked electorate of 129,000 people — would go to men in what is a patriarchal society.
"We are waiting for surprises in September’s elections," said Khamiri, a Dubai businesswoman who unlike most Emirati women does not wear a hijab or head covering.
Khamiri said she hoped a new generation was breaking away from a tradition when male family members encourage women to give their votes to male candidates.
And she suggested the UAE could introduce a quota system, which would give women a guaranteed minimum number of seats in the assembly.
"You hear people say that ‘men are the protectors and maintainers of women’," said Khamiri, a former teacher who worked at the senior citizens’ care unit at the health ministry, quoting a Koranic verse. "But we hope that this generation is more aware than the previous one."
Of the 468 candidates running for the Federal National Council (FNC), 85 are women, but so far, a woman’s best chance to join the council has been by appointment.
Only one woman, Abu Dhabi’s Amal Al-Qubaisi, was elected to the council in 2006 and eight others were appointed. Despite the low number, women accounted for almost a quarter of the council.
The UAE government says empowering women is at the top of its political agenda.
"The UAE has always been keen to empower women and women represent 59 percent of the total workforce in the government," Anwar Gargash, the minister of state responsible for elections, said in a statement last week.
Gargash said that four cabinet ministers, three ambassadors and a judge in the UAE are female.
In other Gulf countries, politics is almost completely controlled by men.
Four seats in Kuwait’s 50-member assembly went to women in 2009, the first since they were allowed to run four years ago.
Saudi Arabia’s 9 million female citizens have been banned from participating in the kingdom’s municipal elections on Sept. 29. The local elections are only the second in more than 40 years.
