This timeline lists the dates of the first women's suffrage in Muslim majority countries. Dates for the right to vote, suffrage, as distinct from the right to stand for election and hold office, are listed.

Some countries with majority Muslim populations established universal suffrage upon national independence, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Malaysia. In most North Africa countries, women participated in the first national elections or soon following. Some dates relate to regional elections and, where possible, the second date of general election has been included. Even countries listed may not have universal suffrage for women, and some may have regressed in women's rights since the initial granting of suffrage.

Timeline

1917 United Republics of the North Caucasus Crimean People's Republic

1918 Azerbaijan Democratic RepublicTadeusz Swietochowski. Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community. Cambridge University Press, 2004. , 9780521522458, p.144 Kyrgyz SSR (Soviet Republic)

1920

1921 (Soviet Republic)

1924 Tajik SSR (Soviet Republic) Kazakh SSR (Soviet Republic)

1927 (Soviet Republic)

1930 (municipal elections)

1932

1934 (national elections)

1938 (Soviet Republic)

1945 Senegal

1946 French Somaliland Republic of Mahabad

1947 (upon its national independence) (Bangladesh was eastern part of Pakistan and later achieved independence from Pakistan on December 16, 1971 and women suffrage was never barred.)

1948 Niger

1949

1952 (an educational requirement) Ivory Coast

1956 Comoros

Mali

1957 (universal) (now Peninsular Malaysia)

1958

Chad

1959

1960 Gambia

1961

1962

(revoked)

1963 (after a referendum)

1964

1965 (first time)

1967

1970

1973 (Bahrain did not hold elections until 2002.)

1974

1976 (women allowed to vote in local elections for the first time; at the previous election, in 1972, only male property owners could vote)Pro-plo, Communist Sweep in West Bank Elections: 72.3% of Eligible Voters. Including Women, Particip JTA, 13 April 2013

1978 (North)

1980 Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p.65The Crisis of Citizenship in the Arab World. (2017). Nederländerna: Brill. p.435

1985 (first time)

1996 (revoked by the Taliban) (first elections held in the territory since 1923)

1999

(revoked)

2002 (re-granted after the fall of the Taliban)

2003

2005 (re-granted)

2006

2011 (introduced along with right to run for municipal elections in 2015)

2021 (revoked)

See also Rawya Ateya (first female parliamentarian in Egypt and the Arab world) List of the first female members of parliament by country List of equal or majority Muslim countries List of suffragists and suffragettes List of women's rights activists Sex segregation in Islam Timeline of women's suffrage Women in Islam

References