By Faris Al-Qahtani

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — The lack of majority votes has obstructed the Shoura Council from approving three proposals to appoint women in the judiciary, secure their financial rights after divorce, and to stop accusing them of parental disobedience.

The proposals were tabled by members Faisal Al-Fadil, Atta Al-Sibaiti and Latifa Al-Shaalan.

The council on Tuesday listened to the viewpoints of its committee on Islamic affairs and judiciary on the annual report of the Justice Ministry.

The three members proposed that women who are qualified in general law and Shariah law should be appointed in judicial positions but their proposals were only backed by 53 members and failed to secure the required majority of 76 votes.

Commenting on the lack of sufficient support to their proposals, Al-Shaalan has said, “The enlightenment moves in the council for empowering women will not stop regardless of the inability to secure the required votes. The votes we obtained were much more than I expected and they represented more than a third of the number of votes.”

She believed that a decision to empower women might be sooner than expected in view of the reforms being made by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.

Al-Fadil, on his part, said the 53 votes they had obtained were more than they had expected though they failed short of securing the majority needed to approve the proposals.

“This is enough number of votes to convey a clear message to the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Judicial Council to appoint qualified women in the judiciary,” he said recalling that the Kingdom’s judicial system does not differentiate between men and women. The three members said there are enough qualified Saudi women to hold judicial positions and work as judges especially in view of the acute shortage in the number of judges.

They said preventing women from taking up judicial positions was not in harmony with the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision.

The enlightenment moves in the council for empowering women will not stop regardless of the inability to secure the required votes. The votes we obtained were much more than I expected and they represented more than a third of the number of votes.