Faculty of Education for Human Sciences / University of Kerbala has held a scientific lecture which is entitled (Feminist Voting in Britain) in which Prof. Dr. Uday Muhsin Ghafil delivers it.
The aim of the lecture is introducing women to vote in British elections, which is a pioneering experience in women’s right and how to allow them to vote and participate in political life in English society.
The lecturer, Dr. Uday Mohsen, says that women have struggled a lot in Britain because of violence and discrimination they are exposed to, and they are considered a second category, and are not allowed to sit within juries in courts, nor allowed to graduate from the university, or vote in any elections. The lectureradds that even marital rape was not considered a crime until February 6, 1918, when women gained the right to vote with Parliament’s approval of 1918 Law on Popular Representation, and at that time 8,500,000 eight million and five hundred votes were added to the popular vote lists for a woman over the age of thirty. After 10 years, the law included women of 21 years of age. .
Dr. Uday pointed out that The first woman whom win a parliamentary seat in 1918 elections is of Polish origin (Markenfer Constance) and choses not to join the parliament to be replaced by the American (Nancy Astor).
It is mentioned that the first country that allowed women to vote is New Zealand in 1893, and in Arabic world it is Lebanon in 1952, and Iraq allowed women right to vote in 1980.
