As election time draws closer for Jeddah's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), many of the female candidates are busy campaigning and engaging with local media, as they each hope to become the first businesswoman to be elected to the chamber's board. Evident, however, was the fact that the chamber's campaign leaflet did not include any pictures of female candidates despite having their images broadcasted in other forms of media. The campaign leaflet that consisted of 84 pages highlighted election dates for each chamber, the names and biographies of each male or female candidate as well as the opening commentary by the current JCCI Chairman Ghassan Al-Sulaiman, and Vice-Chairmen Mohamed Al-Sharif. A source from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jeddah told Asharq al-Awsat that pictures of female candidates were not printed in the campaign leaflets subsequent to objections by some of the female nominees themselves. Furthermore, the producers of the leaflet did not push for these images to be included that would better familiarize the candidates to the voters. The source added, "Ethics and integrity pushed us not to include pictures of the female candidates so that the election would maintain its neutrality and so that customs and traditions of our society would continue to be respected." The election results are expected to be announced early December.
| If you go printing pictures of women candidates for the Chamber of Commerce it'll get the men all sexed up and they'll be so busy stretching their Islamic baloneys they won't be able to vote coherently. |