Editing Women's suffrage (section)

=== Asia ===
==== Afghanistan ====
[[File:Women voting afghanistan 2004 usaid.jpg|thumb|Women voting in [[Kabul]] at the [[2004 Afghan presidential election|first presidential election (October 2004)]] in Afghan history ]]
 
Women were granted suffrage in 1919 but elections were abolished in 1929.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 November 2017 |title=The Fight For Women's Voting Rights |url=https://centralasiainstitute.org/womens-voting-rights/ |access-date=20 October 2024 |website=Central Asia Institute}}</ref> Women were again granted suffrage in 1964,<ref name="ABC-CLIO-2020">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N3_rDwAAQBAJ&q=Women%27s+suffrage+in+Afghanistan+1964&pg=PA77 |title=Women's Suffrage: The Complete Guide to the Nineteenth Amendment |publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781440871993|editor= Wayne, Tiffany K.|date=2020}}</ref><ref name="Sankey, Margaret D.-2018">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4HxqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR24 |title=Women and War in the 21st Century: A Country-by-Country Guide |author= Sankey, Margaret D. |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1440857669 |date=2018}}</ref><ref name="Springer-2018">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPZ0DwAAQBAJ&q=Women%27s+suffrage+in+Afghanistan+1964&pg=PA187 |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Women's Political Rights |publisher=Springer |editor1-last=Franceschet |editor1-first=Susan |editor2-last=Krook |editor2-first=Mona Lena |isbn=978-1137590749 |date=2018}}</ref> and have been able to vote in [[Afghanistan]] since 1965 (except during Taliban rule, 1996–2001, when no elections were held).<ref name=Timeline />  {{As of|2009}}, women have been casting fewer ballots in part due to being unaware of their voting rights.<ref>"Fewer Women Cast Votes In Afghanistan." ''Herizons'' 23.2 (2009): 7. ''Academic Search Complete''. Web. October 4, 2016.</ref> In the 2014 election, Afghanistan's elected president pledged to bring women equal rights.<ref>Jason, Straziuso. "Afghanistan's President-Elect Promises Prominent Role, Equal Rights For Country's Women." ''Canadian Press, The'' (n.d.): ''Newspaper Source Plus''. Web. October 4, 2016.</ref>

In early 2021, there were 69 women elected as Members of Parliament in Afghanistan; however, after the [[Fall of Kabul (2021)|Fall of Kabul]] in late 2021, 60 of them fled the country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asis-59598535|title=BBC website, ''Finding Afghanistan’s exiled women MPs'', article by Tom Donkin dated December 10, 2021}}</ref>  Legally, women are allowed to vote.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahmed-Ghosh |first=Huma |date=2003 |title=A History of Women in Afghanistan: Lessons Learnt for the Future or Yesterdays and Tomorrow: Women in Afghanistan |url=https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol4/iss3/1/ |journal=Journal of International Women's Studies |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=1–14 |issn=1539-8706}}</ref> However, there have been no government elections in the country since 2021, and all political parties have been banned since 2023.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-ban-afghan-political-parties-citing-sharia-violations/7228136.html|title=Taliban Ban Afghan Political Parties, Citing Sharia Violations|date=August 16, 2023|website=Voice of America}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://freedomhouse.org/country/afghanistan/freedom-world/2023|title=Afghanistan: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report|website=Freedom House}}</ref>

====Bahrain ====

The [[Bahrain]] formally introduced women's suffrage in 2002, when Article 1, Paragraph E, of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain, explicitly included women in the citizens eligible to vote.<ref>Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Citizenship and Justice. (2005). USA: Freedom House. p. 61</ref>

==== Bangladesh ====
[[Bangladesh]] was (mostly) the province of Bengal in [[British Raj|British India]] until 1947 when it became part of [[Pakistan]]. It became an independent nation in 1971. Women have had equal suffrage since 1947, and they have reserved seats in parliament. Bangladesh is notable in that since 1991, two women, namely [[Sheikh Hasina]] and [[Khaleda Zia|Begum Khaleda Zia]], have served terms as the country's Prime Minister continuously. Women have traditionally played a minimal role in politics beyond the anomaly of the two leaders; few used to run against men; few have been ministers. Recently, however, women have become more active in politics, with several prominent ministerial posts given to women and women participating in national, district and municipal elections against men and winning on several occasions. [[Chowdhury|Choudhury]] and [[Hasanuzzaman]] argue that the strong patriarchal traditions of Bangladesh explain why women are so reluctant to stand up in politics.<ref>{{cite journal|author= Choudhury, Dilara and Hasanuzzaman, Al Masud|title=Political Decision-Making in Bangladesh and the Role of Women|journal=Asian Profile|date=February 1997|volume= 25|issue=1|pages= 53–69}}</ref>

==== China ====
The fight for women's suffrage in [[China]] was organized when [[Tang Qunying]] founded the women's suffrage organization [[Nüzi chanzheng tongmenghui]], to ensure that women's suffrage would be included in the first Constitution drafted after the abolition of the [[Monarchy of China|Chinese monarchy]] in 1911–1912.<ref>Bailey, Paul J. (2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=svYcBQAAQBAJ&q=suffrage+&pg=PA96 ''Women and Gender in Twentieth-Century China'']{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 96. {{ISBN|9781137029683}}</ref> A short but intense period of campaigning was ended with failure in 1914.

In the following period, local governments in China introduced women's suffrage in their own territories, such as [[Hunan]] and [[Guangdong]] in 1921 and [[Sichuan]] in 1923.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FXscBgAAQBAJ&q=women+suffrage+in+china+1947&pg=PA32|editor=Mikula, Maja |publisher=Routledge|year= 2006|isbn=1136782710|title=Women, Activism and Social Change: Stretching Boundaries}}</ref>

Women's suffrage was included by the [[Kuomintang]] Government in the Constitution of 1936,<ref name="China">{{cite book|title=Women and Gender in Chinese Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q4uzfrO3Cu0C&q=women+suffrage+in+china+1947&pg=PA5|editor=Spakowski, Nicola |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|year= 2006|isbn=3825893049}}</ref> but because of the war, the reform could not be enacted until after the war and was finally introduced in 1947.<ref name="China" />

==== India ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in India}}
Women in India were allowed to vote right from the first general elections after the independence of India in 1947 unlike during the British rule who resisted allowing women to vote.<ref name="BBCWomen">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-43081429|title=Did the Empire resist women's suffrage in India?|last=Biswas|first=Soutik|date=February 2, 2018|access-date=August 15, 2019}}</ref> The [[Women's Indian Association]] (WIA) was founded in 1917. It sought votes for women and the right to hold legislative office on the same basis as men. These positions were endorsed by the main political groupings, the [[Indian National Congress]].<ref name = Basu>{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/037698360803500106|title=Women's Struggle for the Vote: 1917-1937|year=2008|last1=Basu|first1=Aparna|journal=Indian Historical Review|volume=35|pages=128–143|s2cid=148755031}}</ref> British and [[Feminism in India|Indian feminists]] combined in 1918 to publish a magazine ''Stri Dharma'' that featured international news from a feminist perspective.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/09612020300200377|title=Writingstri dharma: International feminism, nationalist politics, and women's press advocacy in late colonial India|year=2003|last1=Elizabeth Tusan|first1=Michelle|journal=Women's History Review|volume=12|issue=4|pages=623–649|s2cid=219611926|doi-access=free}}</ref> In 1919 in the [[Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms]], the British set up provincial legislatures which had the power to grant women's suffrage. Madras in 1921 granted votes to wealthy and educated women, under the same terms that applied to men. The other provinces followed, but not the princely states (which did not have votes for men either, being monarchies).<ref name = Basu/> In [[Bengal]] province, the provincial assembly rejected it in 1921 but Southard shows an intense campaign produced victory in 1921. Success in Bengal depended on middle class Indian women, who emerged from a fast-growing urban elite. The women leaders in Bengal linked their crusade to a moderate nationalist agenda, by showing how they could participate more fully in nation-building by having voting power. They carefully avoided attacking traditional gender roles by arguing that traditions could coexist with political modernization.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00011549|title=Colonial Politics and Women's Rights: Woman Suffrage Campaigns in Bengal, British India in the 1920s|year=1993|last1=Southard|first1=Barbara|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=27|issue=2|pages=397–439|s2cid=145276788|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Whereas wealthy and educated women in Madras were granted voting right in 1921, in Punjab the [[Sikh]]s granted women equal voting rights in 1925, irrespective of their educational qualifications or being wealthy or poor. This happened when the Gurdwara Act of 1925 was approved. The original draft of the Gurdwara Act sent by the British to the [[Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee|Sharomani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee]] (SGPC) did not include Sikh women, but the Sikhs inserted the clause without the women having to ask for it. Equality of women with men is enshrined in the [[Guru Granth Sahib]], the [[sacred scripture]] of the Sikh faith.

In the [[Government of India Act 1935]] the [[British Raj]] set up a system of separate electorates and separate seats for women. Most women's leaders opposed segregated electorates and demanded adult franchise. In 1931 the Congress promised universal adult franchise when it came to power. It enacted equal voting rights for both men and women in 1947.<ref name = Basu/>

==== Indonesia ====
[[Indonesia]] granted women voting rights for municipal councils in 1905. Only men who could read and write could vote, which excluded many non-European males. At the time, the [[Literacy|literacy rate]] for males was 11% and for females 2%. The main group that pressed for women's suffrage in Indonesia was the Dutch [[Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht|Vereeninging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht]] (VVV-Women's Suffrage Association), founded in the [[Netherlands]] in 1894. VVV tried to attract Indonesian members, but had very limited success because the leaders of the organization had little skill in relating to even the educated class of Indonesians. When they eventually did connect somewhat with women, they failed to sympathize with them and ended up alienating many well-educated Indonesians. In 1918, the first national representative body, the [[Volksraad (Dutch East Indies)|Volksraad]], was formed which still excluded women from voting. Indigenous women did not organize until the [[Perikatan Perempuan Indonesia]] (PPI, Indonesian Women Association) in 1928. In 1935, the colonial administration used its power of nomination to appoint a European woman to the Volksraad. In 1938, women gained the right to be elected to urban representative institutions, which led to some Indonesian and European women entering municipal councils. Eventually, only European women and municipal councils could vote,{{Clarify|date=April 2010}}<!-- how can a municipal council be a voter? --> excluding all other women and [[Local government|local councils]]. In September 1941, the Volksraad extended the vote to women of all races. Finally, in November 1941, the right to vote for municipal councils was granted to all women on a similar basis to men (subject to property and educational qualifications).<ref name=Blackburn>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/08164649993443|title=Winning the Vote for Women in Indonesia|year=1999|last1=Blackburn|first1=Susan|journal=Australian Feminist Studies|volume=14|issue=29|pages=207–218}}</ref>

==== Iran ====
{{see also|1963 Iranian referendum}}
[[File:1963 Iranian legislative election.jpg|thumb|left|1963 Iranian legislative election]]
Women's suffrage had been expressly excluded in the Iranian Constitution of 1906 and a women's rights movement had been organized, which supported women's suffrage.

In 1942, the [[Women’s party of Iran]] (Ḥezb-e zanān-e Īrān) was founded to work to introduce the reform, and in 1944, the women's group of the [[Tudeh Party of Iran]], the [[Democratic Society of Women]] (Jāmeʿa-ye demokrāt-e zanān) put forward a suggestion of women's suffrage in the Parliament, which was however blocked by the Islamic conservatives.<ref name="iranicaonline.org">Hamideh Sedghi, [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/feminist-movements-iii “FEMINIST MOVEMENTS iii. IN THE PAHLAVI PERIOD,”] Encyclopædia Iranica, IX/5, pp. 492–498.</ref> In 1956, a new campaign for women's suffrage was launched by the [[New Path Society]] (Jamʿīyat-e rāh-e now), the Association of Women Lawyers (Anjoman-e zanān-e ḥoqūqdān) and the League of Women Supporters of Human Rights (Jamʿīyat-e zanān-e ṭarafdār-e ḥoqūq-e bašar).<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/>

After this, the reform was actively supported by the Shah and included as a part of his modernization program, the [[White Revolution]]. A [[1963 Iranian referendum|referendum in January 1963]] overwhelmingly approved by voters gave women the right to vote, a right previously denied to them under the [[Persian Constitution of 1906|Iranian Constitution of 1906]] pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 3.<ref name=Timeline />{{dead link|date=November 2021}}

==== Iraq ====

Full women's suffrage was introduced in Iraq in 1980.

The campaign for women's suffrage started in the 1920s. The women's movement in Iraq organized in 1923 with the ''Nahda al-Nisa'' ([[Women's Awakening Club]]), lead by [[Asma al-Zahawi]] and with elite women such as Naima a-Said, and Fakhriyya al-Askari among their members.<ref name="auto">Zuhur, S. (2006). Iraq, Women's Empowerment, and Public Policy. USA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College. pp. 12-13</ref>  
[[Faisal I of Iraq|King Faysal]] himself had supported women's suffrage during his prior short tenure as king in Syria.  
Feminists such as [[Mary Wazir]] and [[Paulina Hasun]] raised the issue in the 1920s.<ref name="auto"/> 
Paulina Hassan published the first Iraqi women's magazine, ''Layla'', in 1923–1925, followed by a number of women's magazines in the 1930s and 1940s that voiced feminist demands.<ref>Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 20</ref> 
When the Constituent Assembly of Iraq was inaugurated in 1924, Paulina Hassun appealed to the Assembly that women should not be excluded from political participation in the new nation, and one of the members, Amjad al-Umari, unsuccessfully proposed that the word "male" be erased from the Electoral Law to include women in it.<ref name="auto6">Efrati, N. (2012). Women in Iraq: Past Meets Present. Tyskland: Columbia University Press.</ref>

The Women's suffrage reform was primarily supported by the opposition parties, notably the [[Iraqi Communist Party|Iraq Communist Party]].<ref name="auto7">Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 21</ref>
During the 1930s, the Communist ICP and the leftist al-Ahali supported women's suffrage.<ref name="auto6"/>  
Even those supporting the reform, however, often did so with the reservation that woman should reach a higher level of education before they were ready for it.<ref name="auto7"/>

The Iraqi monarchy prioritized foreign policy rather than internal issues and showed little enthusiasm to address the issue of women's suffrage.<ref>Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 22</ref>
The monarchy was careful to avoid alienating conservative and religious circles, who considered women's suffrage as incompatible with the  "nature" of women, the proper social order and gender hierarchies, and women's suffrage was not given refused serious consideration.<ref name="auto6"/>  
Both the Sunni and Shia clergy rejected women's suffrage as being in opposition to the natural roles of gender, as the "joke of the day", an attack on the law of nature and the proper way of life, since women were the weaker sex and "lesser persons" similar to children.<ref name="auto6"/>
When women's suffrage in Syria was introduced in 1949, MP Farhan al-Irs of al-Amara commented: "Women are shameful. How could they possibly sit with men?"<ref name="auto6"/>

In 1951 a motion to include women in the Electoral Law was rejected in the Chamber of Deputies.<ref name="auto6"/>
During the discussion to change the electoral law to include women's suffrage in March–April 1951, the MP Abd al-Abbas of Diwaniyya opposed suffrage as this would contradict Islamic sex segregation, as elected women MP would then sit among male MPs in the Chamber of Deputies: "Is this not forbidden? Are we not all of Islam?"<ref name="auto6"/> 
 
An electoral decree in December 1952 provided direct elections but did not include women.<ref name="auto6"/>
A Sunni scholar published an article in the paper al-Sijill in October 1952 named "The Crime of Equality Between Men and Women": as an imam and khatib of the mosques of Baghdad and scholar of the al-Azhar University, he stated that women's suffrage was a plot against Islam and contrary to Quranic verses which delineated gender hierarchies that made women in politics incompatible.<ref name="auto6"/>

A number of women's organization was founded in the 1940s and 1950s that campaigned for women's rights including suffrage, notably the [[Iraqi Union for Women's Rights]] (1952).<ref name="auto7"/> 
[[Naziha al-Dulaimi]] of the [[League for Defence of Women's Rights]] ([[Iraqi Women's League]]), which gathered 42,000 members, campaigned for gender equality (including suffrage), organized educational programs, provided social services, established 78 literacy centers, and drafted the 1959 Personal Status Law, which was accepted and introduced by the Government.<ref>Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 22-25</ref> 
In the 1950s the Iraqi Women's Union petitioned senior state figures including the prime minister and wrote articles in the press.<ref name="auto6"/>

A Week of Women's Rights was launched in October 1953 by Iraqi Women's Union suffrage, who arranged a sumposium and voiced their demand in radio programs and articles in the press to campaigned for women's suffrage.<ref name="auto6"/>
As a response, the Islamic clergy launched a Week of Virtue and called for a general strike against women's suffrage and called for women to "stay at home" since women's suffrage was against Islam.<ref name="auto6"/> 
During the Week of Virtue, the Sunni Nihal al-Zahawi, daughter of Amjad al-Zahawi, head of the Muslim Sisters Society (Jamiyyat al-Aukht al-Muslima), spoke on the radio against women's suffrage: she described the suffragists as women who revolted against the very Islam that gave them rights, and that women's suffrage was lamentable since it broke sex segregation and resulted in gender mixing, which was an unrestricted liberty that broke the rules of against Islam.<ref name="auto6"/>

A breakthrough came in 1958. During the Arab Union of [[Arab Federation|Iraq-Jordan]], the Iraqi Constitution was set, in March 1958, to be amended to include women's suffrage later that year, but the matter became moot when the monarchy was abolished in July that year.<ref name="auto6"/>
An unnamed MP to the newspaper al-Hawadith that he could never run against a female candidate, since if he lost he would have lost to a woman, which would have been dishonorable, and if he won, he would only have won over a woman; he claimed many male MPs felt the same, and that voters would also feel dishonored by being represented and ruled by a woman.<ref name="auto6"/> 
The MP Tawfq al-Mukhtar commented to a reporter: "Friends, women's rights bother me a lot, and anybody who condemns or criticizes them gives me great pleasure"; he added that he would withdraw if he was put against a female candidate, and he was one of four MPs to vote against the proposed amendment of March 1958.<ref name="auto6"/>

In 1958 the Iraqi Monarchy was replaced by the Baathis regime. The early Baathist regime saw women's emancipation in many aspects, with urban liberal modernist women enjoying professional and educational equality and appearing unveiled.<ref name="auto1">Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 23</ref>
The [[Baath Party (Iraq)|Baathist Party]] supported women's rights by principle, though it initially focused in expanding women's educational and professional rights rather than their political rights.<ref name="auto"/>
Article 19 of the Iraqi Provisional Constitution of 1970 granted all Iraqi citizens equal before the law regardless of sex, blood, language, social origin or religion, and the state women's umbrella organization [[General Foundation of Iraqi Women]] (GFIW) of 1972 guaranteed women's full equal rights in the professional and educational sphere, prevented all discrimination and recognized women's political participation in principle.<ref>Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 25</ref>
However, while women's rights progressed in other aspects, the political rights was delayed. The regime was unstable and saw four regime changes in the 1960s.<ref name="auto1"/>

In 1980 full suffrage was granted and women were given the right to vote and be elected to political office.<ref name="auto3"/><ref name="auto4"/>
The suffrage reform was granted when the new Iraq National Assembly was formed before the 1980s Elections, and 16 of 250 seats where filled by women.<ref>Al-Tamimi, H. (2019). Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building. Indien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 26</ref>

==== Israel ====
Women have had full suffrage since the [[Israel's independence|establishment]] of the [[Israel|State of Israel]] in 1948.

In 1920, the [[Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Erez Israel]] launched a campaign that women's suffrage and equal rights for women should be included in the Jewish Authority of the British [[Mandate for Palestine|Palestina Mandate]]; in 1926, the Jewish Authority granted women's suffrage to the Jewish Authority, and declared that women would be given equal right to vote in the future Jewish State, a promise that was fullfilled upon the foundation of Israel in 1947, followed by equal rights being included in the Constitution of 1951.<ref>Safran, Hannah and Margalit Shilo. "Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Erez Israel." Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. 23 June 2021. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on October 16, 2023) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/union-of-hebrew-women-for-equal-rights-in-erez-israel>.</ref>

The first (and only) woman to be elected [[Prime Minister of Israel]] was [[Golda Meir]] in 1969.

==== Japan ====
[[File:Woman's Rights Meeting Tokyo.jpg|thumb|Women's Rights meeting in Tokyo, to push for women's suffrage]]
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Japan}}

Although women were allowed to vote in some prefectures in 1880, women's suffrage was enacted at a national level in 1945 with the end of the world war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ichikawa-fusae.or.jp/110/main.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305105909/http://www.ichikawa-fusae.or.jp/110/main.htm |archive-date=March 5, 2008 |title=The Fusae Ichikawa Memorial Association |publisher=Ichikawa-fusae.or.jp |access-date=January 8, 2011}} Retrieved from Internet Archive January 14, 2014.</ref>

The campaign for women's suffrage started in 1923, when the women's umbrella organization [[Tokyo Rengo Fujinkai]] was founded and created several sub groups to address different women's issues, one of whom, [[Fusen Kakutoku Domei]] (FKD), was to work for the introduction of women's suffrage and political rights.<ref>{{cite book|access-date=2023-05-03|date=1998|first=Edward R.|isbn=978-0-8153-2731-8|language=en|last=Beauchamp|publisher=Taylor & Francis|title=Women and Women's Issues in Post World War II Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mKNcjos0aH0C&dq=Tokyo+Rengo+Fujinkai&pg=PA41}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The campaign was gradually reduced due to difficulties in the 1930s fascist era; the FKD was banned after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese war, and women's suffrage could not be introduced until it was incorporated in the new constitution after the war.<ref>Suffrage and Beyond: International Feminist Perspectives.&nbsp;(1994).&nbsp;USA:&nbsp;NYU Press.</ref>

====Jordan====

The [[Arab Women's Federation]] under [[Emily Bisharat]] worked for the introduction of women's suffrage in Jordan in the 1950s.<ref name="auto5"/>

Suffrage were given to educated women in 1955, but the Federation continued to campaign for universal suffrage for women, collecting the thumb prints as signatures from illiterate women in support for women's suffrage.<ref name="auto5"/> 
Universal women's suffrage was finally granted in 1974. However, since no elections was held in Jordan until 1989, women's suffrage was not enforced until that year.

==== Korea ====
South Korean people, including South Korean women, were universally granted the vote in 1948.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/online-articles/empowerment-women-south-korea|title=The Empowerment of Women in South Korea|date=March 1, 2014|work=JIA SIPA|access-date=February 16, 2018|archive-date=July 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731065444/https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/online-articles/empowerment-women-south-korea|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Kuwait ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Kuwait}}
When voting was first introduced in Kuwait in 1985, Kuwaiti women had the [[right to vote]].<ref name="stat">{{Cite book|year=2001|title=African Women and Children: Crisis and Response|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|url=https://archive.org/details/africanwomenchil00rwom|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/africanwomenchil00rwom/page/8 8]|author=Apollo Rwomire|isbn=978-0-275-96218-0}}</ref> The right was later removed. In May 2005, the Kuwaiti parliament re-granted female suffrage.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4552749.stm |title=Kuwaiti women win right to vote |work=BBC News |date=May 1, 2005|access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref>

==== Lebanon ====
{{Main|Women in Lebanon#Women's suffrage}}

The women's movement organized in Lebanon with the creation of the [[Syrian-Lebanese Women's Union]] in 1924; it split into the Women's Union under [[Ibtihaj Qaddoura]] and the [[Lebanese Women Solidarity Association]] under [[Laure Thabet]] in 1946. The women's movement united again when the two biggest women's organizations, the [[Lebanese Women's Union]] and the [[Christian Women's Solidarity Association]] created the [[Lebanese Council of Women]] in 1952 to campaign for women's suffrage, a task that finally succeeded, after an intense campaign.<ref name=Arenfeldt>{{cite book|access-date=2022-12-07|date=2012-05-01|editor=Pernille Arenfeldt, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley|isbn=978-1-61797-353-6|language=en|publisher=American University in Cairo Press|title=Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmpjEAAAQBAJ&dq=General+Union+of+Yemeni+Women+%28GUYS%29&pg=PT280}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

==== Oman ====
After the [[1970 Omani coup d'état]], women's position in society was being reassessed in connection to the national modernization program, and many reforms in women's rights was introduced alongside the establishment of the state feminist [[Omani Women's Association]].

The modernization in women's rights in Oman was followed by municipal suffrage in Muscat in 1994 (with the first two women elected to the local Shura the same year), municipal suffrage in all Oman in 1996, and national suffrage in 2002.<ref name="auto9"/>

==== Pakistan ====
The provinces that now constitute [[Pakistan]] were a part of northwest [[British India]] until 1947, when the [[partition of India]] occurred. Women received full suffrage in 1947. [[Women in Pakistan|Muslim women]] leaders from all classes actively supported the Pakistan movement in the mid-1940s. Their movement was led by wives and other relatives of leading politicians. Women were sometimes organized into large-scale public demonstrations.
In November 1988, [[Benazir Bhutto]] became the first Muslim woman to be elected as prime minister of a Muslim country.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Ali, Azra Asghar |title=Indian Muslim Women's Suffrage Campaign: Personal Dilemma and Communal Identity 1919–47|journal=Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society|date=April 1999|volume= 47|issue=2|pages= 33–46}}</ref>

==== Philippines ====
[[File:President Quezon signing the Women’s Suffrage Bill.jpg|thumb|Philippine President [[Manuel L. Quezon]] signing the Women's Suffrage Bill following the 1937 plebiscite]]

The Philippines was one of the first countries in Asia to grant women the right to vote.<ref name="Iwanaga-2008">{{cite book |last1=Iwanaga |first1=Kazuki |title=Women's Political Participation and Representation in Asia: Obstacles and Challenges |date=2008 |publisher=NIAS Press |isbn=978-87-7694-016-4 |page=218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsDXtwZyaHAC }}</ref> 
The women's movement organized in the early 20th-century in organizations such as the [[Asociacion Feminista Filipina]] (1904) the [[Society for the Advancement of Women]] (SAW) and the [[Asociaction Feminist Ilonga]], who campaigned for women's suffrage and other rights for gender equality.<ref>Kathleen Nadeau, Sangita Rayamajhi ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FW6qAAAAQBAJ&dq=women+organisation+philippines+1898&pg=PA115 Women's Roles in Asia]''</ref> 
Suffrage for [[Filipino people|Filipinas]] was achieved following an all-female, [[1937 Philippine women's suffrage plebiscite|special plebiscite]] held on April 30, 1937. 447,725&nbsp;– some ninety percent&nbsp;– voted in favour of women's suffrage against 44,307 who voted no. In compliance with the [[Philippine Commonwealth Constitution|1935 Constitution]], the [[National Assembly of the Philippines|National Assembly]] passed a law which extended the right of suffrage to women, which remains to this day.<ref name="Rappaport-2001">{{cite book |last1=Rappaport |first1=Helen |title=Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers |date=2001 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-101-4 |page=224 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rpuSzowmIkgC }}</ref><ref name="Iwanaga-2008" />

====Qatar ====

[[Qatar]] formally introduced women's suffrage in 1997.<ref>Taylor, M., Symonds, D. (2017). Studying Musical Theatre: Theory and Practice. Storbritannien: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 137</ref>

==== Saudi Arabia ====
In late September 2011, [[King of Saudi Arabia|King]] [[Abdullah of Saudi Arabia|Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud]] declared that women would be able to vote and run for office [[2015 Saudi Arabian municipal elections|starting in 2015]]. That applies to the municipal councils, which are the kingdom's only semi-elected bodies. Half of the seats on municipal councils are elective, and the councils have few powers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Al Haydar |first1=Tariq |title=In Saudi Arabia, a Quiet Step Forward for Women |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/in-saudi-arabia-a-quiet-step-forward-for-women/247351/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=31 January 2024 |website=[[The Atlantic]] |date=26 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028144843/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/in-saudi-arabia-a-quiet-step-forward-for-women/247351/ |archive-date=28 October 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The council elections have been held since 2005 (the first time they were held before that was the 1960s).<ref name="Reu01">{{cite news |last1=Alsharif |first1=Asma |title=UPDATE 2-Saudi king gives women right to vote |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-king-women-idUSL5E7KP0IB20110925 |url-access=subscription |access-date=31 January 2024 |work=[[Reuters]] |date=25 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313142625/https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-king-women-idUSL5E7KP0IB20110925/ |archive-date=13 March 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/saudi-king-women-given-right-to-vote-for-first-time-in-2015-nationwide-local-elections/2011/09/25/gIQAt4wwvK_story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215030318/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/saudi-king-women-given-right-to-vote-for-first-time-in-2015-nationwide-local-elections/2011/09/25/gIQAt4wwvK_story.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 15, 2018 |title=Saudi monarch grants kingdom's women right to vote, but driving ban remains in force |newspaper=The Washington Post }}</ref> Saudi women did first vote and first run for office in December 2015, for those councils.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/12/12/saudi-women-vote-for-the-first-time-in-landmark-election|title=Saudi women vote for the first time, testing boundaries |work=U.S. News & World Report}}</ref> [[Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi]] became the first elected female politician in Saudi Arabia in December 2015, when she won a seat on the council in Madrakah in Mecca province.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35086357|title=Saudi Arabia: First women councillors elected|newspaper=BBC News|date=December 1, 2015}}</ref> In all, the December 2015 election in Saudi Arabia resulted in twenty women being elected to municipal councils.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/saudi-voters-elect-20-women-candidates-for-the-first-time/|title=Saudi voters elect 20 women candidates for the first time|work=Fox News}}</ref>

The king declared in 2011 that women would be eligible to be appointed to the [[Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia|Shura Council]], an unelected body that issues advisory opinions on national policy.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15052030 "Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections"], BBC, September 25, 2011</ref> {{'"}}This is great news," said Saudi writer and women's rights activist [[Wajeha al-Huwaider]]. "Women's voices will finally be heard. Now it is time to remove other barriers like not allowing [[Women to drive movement|women to drive]] cars and not being able to function, to live a normal life without male guardians.{{"'}} [[Robert Lacey]], author of two books about the kingdom, said, "This is the first positive, progressive speech out of the government since the [[Arab Spring]].... First the warnings, then the payments, now the beginnings of solid reform." The king made the announcement in a five-minute speech to the Shura Council.<ref name="Reu01"/> In January 2013, [[Abdullah of Saudi Arabia|King Abdullah]] issued two royal decrees, granting women thirty seats on the council, and stating that women must always hold at least a fifth of the seats on the council.<ref name="foxnews1">{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/saudi-king-grants-women-seats-on-advisory-council-for-1st-time/|title=Saudi king grants women seats on advisory council for 1st time|work=Fox News|date=May 14, 2012|access-date=January 12, 2013}}</ref> According to the decrees, the female council members must be "committed to Islamic Shariah disciplines without any violations" and be "restrained by the religious veil".<ref name="foxnews1"/> The decrees also said that the female council members would be entering the council building from special gates, sit in seats reserved for women and pray in special worshipping places.<ref name="foxnews1"/> Earlier, officials said that a screen would separate genders and an internal communications network would allow men and women to communicate.<ref name="foxnews1"/> Women first joined the council in 2013, holding a total of thirty seats.<ref name="saudigazette1">{{cite news|url=http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130225154468 |title=Women on 3 Shoura panels |newspaper=Saudi Gazette |date=February 25, 2013 |access-date=April 3, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023529/http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130225154468 |archive-date=February 18, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=mul23feb>{{cite news|last=Al Mulhim|first=Abdulateef|title=Saudi Stability and Royal Succession|url=http://www.grc.net/?Search=&frm_title=&frm_action=detail_book&frm_module=contents&frm_researchprogramid=77&p_id=&sec=Research+Programs&book_id=80338&frm_pageno=&sec_type=d&isgrc=&frm_type_id=&override=Research+Program+Detail+%3E+Saudi+Stability+and+Royal+Succession&op_lang=en|access-date=April 12, 2013|newspaper=Arab News|date=February 23, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104203009/http://www.grc.net/?Search=&frm_title=&frm_action=detail_book&frm_module=contents&frm_researchprogramid=77&p_id=&sec=Research+Programs&book_id=80338&frm_pageno=&sec_type=d&isgrc=&frm_type_id=&override=Research+Program+Detail+%3E+Saudi+Stability+and+Royal+Succession&op_lang=en|archive-date=January 4, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> There are two Saudi royal women among these thirty female members of the assembly, [[Sara bint Faisal Al Saud]] and [[Moudi bint Khalid Al Saud]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Breakthrough in Saudi Arabia: women allowed in parliament|url=http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/01/11/259881.html|access-date=August 11, 2013|newspaper=Al Arabiya|date=January 11, 2013}}</ref> Furthermore, in 2013 three women were named as deputy chairpersons of three committees: Thurayya Obeid was named deputy chairwoman of the human rights and petitions committee, Zainab Abu Talib, deputy chairwoman of the information and cultural committee, and Lubna Al Ansari, deputy chairwoman of the health affairs and environment committee.<ref name="saudigazette1"/>

====Syria====

Women's suffrage was introduced in Syria in 1953.

While the women's suffrage reform was supported by the women's magazine ''[[Nur al-Fayha|Nur al-Faya]]'' of [[Nazik al-Abid]] and ''[[Al-'Arus|al-Arus]]'' of Mary Ajami, there was no organized suffrage movement in Syria, and the majority was convinced that women preserved their virtue by staying away from politics.<ref name="auto8">Meininghaus, E. (2016). Creating Consent in Ba‘thist Syria: Women and Welfare in a Totalitarian State. Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 57</ref>

In 1920, the feminist [[Mary Ajami]] presented a petition to the Syrian Congress of 1920 during the [[Faisal of Syria|Faisal]]-Government, but the subject was postphoned and forgotten after the fall of the Faisal regime.<ref name="auto8"/> 
When the petition of women's suffrage was discussed in the Syrian Congress in 1920, [[Sheikh|Shaykh]] Abd al-Qadir al-Kaylani stated that to given women the right to vote would be the same thing as abolish sex segregation and allow women to appear unveiled.<ref>Thompson, E. (2000). Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon. USA: Columbia University Press. p. 128</ref>

In the 1930s and 1940s, the [[Arab Women's Union of Damascus]] presented a women's suffrage petition to President [[Hashim al-Atassi]] and to President [[Shukri al-Quwatli]], as well as directly to the Parliament.<ref>Meininghaus, E. (2016). Creating Consent in Ba‘thist Syria: Women and Welfare in a Totalitarian State. Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 65</ref>
When the influential feminist [[Adila Bayhum]] gave her support to [[Husni al-Za'im]], he promised her to introduce women's suffrage when he came to power in 1949, and the reform was finally introduced in 1953.<ref>Moubayed, S. M. (2006). Steel & Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900-2000. USA: Cune. pp. 430-432</ref>

==== Sri Lanka ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in Sri Lanka}}
In 1931, [[Sri Lanka]] (at that time Ceylon) became one of the first Asian countries to allow voting rights to women over the age of 21 without any restrictions. Since then, women have enjoyed a significant presence in the Sri Lankan political arena.

The women's movement organized on Sri Lanka under the [[Ceylon Women's Union]] in 1904, and from 1925, the [[Mallika Kulangana Samitiya]] and then the [[Women's Franchise Union]] (WFU) campaigned successfully for the introduction of women's suffrage, which was achieved in 1931.<ref>Neloufer De Mel ''[https://books.google.se/books?id=h0f_D1qiXQgC&pg=PA25&dq=women%27s+franchise+union+sri+lanka+ceylon+1927&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwifgKi7ta_8AhW6QvEDHesNBjAQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=women's%20franchise%20union%20sri%20lanka%20ceylon%201927&f=false Women & the Nation's Narrative: Gender and Nationalism in Twentieth Century]''</ref>

The zenith of this favourable condition to women has been the 1960 July General Elections, in which Ceylon elected the world's first female prime minister, [[Sirimavo Bandaranaike]]. She became the world's first democratically elected female head of government. Her daughter, [[Chandrika Kumaratunga]] also became the Prime Minister later in 1994, and the same year she was elected as the [[Executive president]] of Sri Lanka, making her the fourth woman in the world to be elected president, and the first female executive president.

==== Thailand ====
The Ministry of Interior's Local Administrative Act of May 1897 (Phraraachabanyat 1897 [BE 2440]) granted municipal suffrage in the election of village leader to all villagers “whose house or houseboat was located in that village,” and explicitly included women voters who met the qualifications.<ref name="Bowie2010WomensSI">{{cite journal|title=Women's Suffrage in Thailand: A Southeast Asian Historiographical Challenge|author=Katherine A. Bowie|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|year=2010|volume=52|issue=4|pages=708–741|doi=10.1017/S0010417510000435|s2cid=144561001|doi-access=free}}</ref> 
This was a part of the far-reaching administrative reforms enacted by King [[Chulalongkorn]] (r. 1868–1919), in his efforts to protect Thai sovereignty.<ref name="Bowie2010WomensSI"/>

In the new constitution introduced after the [[Siamese revolution of 1932]], which transformed Siam from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, women were granted the right to vote and run for office.<ref name="Loos">Loos, Tamara Lynn (2006) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=C5ZcrsWCCtEC&dq=women%27s+suffrage+thailand+1932&pg=PA174 Subject Siam: Family, Law, and Colonial Modernity in Thailand]''. Cornell University Press. p. 174. {{ISBN|9780801443930}}</ref>  This reform was enacted without any prior activism in favor of women's suffrage and was followed by a number of reforms in women's rights, and it has been suggested that the reform was part of an effort by [[Pridi Bhanomyong]] to put Thailand on 
equal political terms with modern Western powers and establish diplomatic recognition by those as a modern nation.<ref name="Loos"/> The new right was used for the first time in 1933, and the first female MPs were elected in 1949.

====United Arab Emirates ====

The [[United Arab Emirates]] formally introduced women's suffrage in 2006.<ref>Jenkins, J. D. (2020). Exploring Women's Suffrage Through 50 Historic Treasures. USA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.</ref>

==== Yemen ====

Historically Yemen was divided in two nations prior to its unification in 1990, both of whom already had women's suffrage prior to the unification. The history of women's suffrage is therefore split.

Women's suffrage was granted in [[South Yemen]] in 1967.<ref>Manea, E. (2012). The Arab State and Women's Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance. Storbritannien: Taylor & Francis. p. 3</ref> 
The reform was a part of a number of reforms introduced in women's rights under Socialist rule. When the [[People's Democratic Republic of Yemen]] was founded as an independent nation under the Socialist NLF Party in 1967, the [[General Union of Yemeni Women]] was founded as a part of the regime's policy. The purpose of the GUYW was to enforce the official women's policy of the People's Democratic Republic regime, which was a radical and ambitions [[state feminism]].<ref>Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within. (2012). Egypten: American University in Cairo Press. pp. 17, 215-218</ref>

Women's suffrage was granted in North Yemen in 1970. The Northern [[Yemen Arab Republic]] was a deeply conservative state with sharia law and no strong women's movement, were no reforms in women's rights were not prioritised during the Yemen civil war of 1962–1970. 
However, the Second Permanent Constitution of 1970 stated that "all citizens are equal before the law"; and while this phrase did not explicitly include women, women voters used this phrase to vote in the next election, which was held in 1983.<ref>Manea, E. (2012). The Arab State and Women's Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance. Storbritannien: Taylor & Francis. p. 4</ref>