On Saturday, women in Saudi Arabia voted and ran for office for the first time in the Kingdom’s history. 20 women were elected. But Saudi women were outnumbered in the voting population by a factor of nearly 10 to 1—only 130,637 women registered to vote compared to 1.3 million men. And they were outnumbered in the number of candidates—only 979 women ran compared to more than 5,938 men.
Of course, these women were not able to drive themselves to the ballot box, as women are prohibited from driving a vehicle in Saudi Arabia.
So while this is a step in the right direction, much work remains to be done for women’s rights in the country. After all, it is tough for Saudi women candidates to win when they were barred from speaking to male voters.
Saudi Arabia isn’t the only nation resisting women’s full participation in elections in 2015. Women continue to face serious challenges around the world—obstacles and threats that are difficult for American women to imagine today.
Women are discouraged from participating in elections in some countries, even if they are afforded the symbolic right to vote. For example, 47 women were divorced after taking part in the Tanzanian elections this fall. According to the United Nations, more than 60% of women in India, Nepal, and Pakistan don’t participate in politics because of fear of violence.
And it is not just voting rights that women are still fighting to secure.
A good education is a tool for political advancement. But many girls and young women face grave violence for even daring to go to school. Last year, hundreds of girls were abducted from their boarding school in Nigeria by Boko Haram militants.
We remember the powerful story of Malala Yousafzai—the young girl in Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban on her way home from school in 2012. She has gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize and become a symbol for the struggle young girls face. Girls make up two-thirds of the out of school children in Pakistan. Around the world, girls are a majority of children who are not afforded the opportunity to go to school.Women also continue to suffer horrendously at the hands of terrorist organizations. ISIS fighters are systematically raping girls and pillaging villages in Iraq and Syria. CNN reported that an ISIS fighter told a 22 year-old woman he raped that she would become a Muslim if she was raped by 10 ISIS soldiers. She was then passed to 11 of his friends who also raped her.
Heading into 2016, Americans are gearing up for another divisive campaign. The plight of women around the world should make politicians who want to use the narrative of a “war on women” in America as a tool to win votes pause.
Millions of women around the world face real wars and real violence. And they lack even the most basic rights that most of us take for granted.
Unlike Saudi women, American women won the right to vote almost 100 years ago.
While we disagree on policy, all American women can participate in a civil fashion to demonstrate the power of voting and elections.
And we can press the pundits and politicians who use the “war on women” rhetoric as a political tool to broaden the conventional discussion about “women’s issues” to include women’s rights around the world. Thankfully, this may be one promising area of bipartisan agreement in 2016.