The College of Education for Human Sciences at the University of Karbala and in the Hall of (Sayyid al-Shuhada (PBUH)) held a scientific lecture under the title (Feminist Voting in Britain) in which Professor Dr. Uday Muhsin Ghafil lectured
The aim of the lecture was to introduce women to voting in the British elections, which is a pioneering experience in the right of women and how to allow them to cast their votes and participate in the political life in English society.
The lecturer, Dr. Uday Mohsen, said that women struggled a lot in Britain because of the violence and discrimination they were exposed to, and they were considered a second category, and they were not entitled to sit on juries in courts, nor were they allowed to graduate from university, nor were they entitled to vote in any elections. The lecturer added: “ Even marital rape was not considered a crime until February 6, 1918, when women gained the right to vote with Parliament’s approval of the 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 to win a parliamentary seat in the 1918 elections was of Polish origin (Markenfer Constance) and chose 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 was New Zealand in 1893, and in the Arab world it was Lebanon in 1952, and Iraq allowed women the right to vote in 1980, while the last country that allowed women the right to vote was
