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Jeddah (dpa) - In a ground-breaking move, a newly-formed bloc of Saudi women entrepreneurs, the Pioneers Group, has nominated a female candidate for elections to the board of Jeddah's Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the pan Arab daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported Friday.
The bloc said Qabbani and her female colleagues were "an honour to women" and evidence that government officials are aware of Saudi women's "intellectual and scientific achievement".
In an unprecedented move this September, Saudi authorities allowed women to run for three-day elections of the chamber's board on November 26. The 40,000-member chamber has only 3,000 women, and 16 of 71 women will run for office.
Ten days ago, a demand by Saudi female entrepreneurs to the commerce ministry for a quota guaranteeing two seats for women in the elections was rejected by the head of the chamber, saying a win should be based on merit and not gender.
Members of parliament, the Shura Council, are chosen by the king, and there are no female deputies.
Copyright 2005 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
