This paper considers examples of women successfully running as independents at the national level in the Middle East, investigating how existing electoral systems impacted their ability to contest political office. Women in the region face a host of challenges when it comes to launching political campaigns outside of sociocultural norms. Most extant literature on political participation focuses on parties as the primary vector for female participation in the Global North and South. However, women in the Middle East often cannot rely on this mechanism due to the absence of political parties or existing parties’ unwillingness to back women for cultural reasons. Yet, the region hosts many female independents holding office at the national level. Through the cases of Jordan, Egypt, and Oman, I unpack this phenomenon using an institutional argument and assess what the emergence of such candidates bodes for the future of women in the Middle East.

本文以妇女在中东国家一级成功独立运作为例，研究了现有的选举制度如何影响她们竞选政治职务的能力。在开展社会文化规范之外的政治运动时，该地区的妇女面临许多挑战。现有的有关政治参与的大多数文献都将政党作为女性参与全球北方和南方的主要媒介。但是，由于缺乏政党或现有政党出于文化原因不愿为妇女提供支持，中东妇女往往不能依靠这一机制。然而，该地区拥有许多在国家一级任职的女性独立人士。通过约旦，埃及和阿曼的案例，