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[johnslat]

Saudi King appoints first woman to council

Saudi King Abdullah has appointed a woman to the council of ministers for the first time as part of a Cabinet reshuffle, networks including Saudi state-run Channel One reported Saturday.
King Abdullah announced a new supreme court chief, minister of health, justice minister and information minister as part of the reshuffling, according to Channel One.
King Abdullah appointed Noor Al-Fayez to the Saudi Council of Ministers. She will serve in a new position as deputy minister for women's education.
"People are very excited about this," said Khaled Al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News, an English-language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia. "This sends a clear signal that the King means business. Instead of appointing some bureaucrat, he appointed a woman."
Jamal Khashoggi, editor-in-chief of Al-Watan Daily newspaper, told CNN the reshuffle signals a major change in his country.
"This is a huge step forward, in education, women's place in society," said Khashoggi.
The new appointments are the largest council shakeup since King Abdullah took power in 2005."

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/14/saudi.arabia.woman.minister/index.html?eref=rss_world

And he did it on Valentine's Day - how sweet. I'd send Ms Al-Fayez a dozen red roses, but, well, the SPVPV would go bananas.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Well, John...what's happened, even a glacial speed does seem positive. I remember the day when we would pray for the health of King Fahad as it was the belief that a King Abdullah would be a very sad event. My question is: Are the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue fellas still his? And, if so, has he started to reign them in? That was and always be the biggest stick that stuck in my craw!

NCTBA

[Cleopatra]

I do think things are changing in KSA, though token appointments to token positions in token Cabinets have little to do with this. I'm talking about broader societal trends rather than official PR stunts. Saudi society definately seems to have changed in the 7 years I've been here, though the developments would not be obvious and would likely appear trivial to an outsider. I'm talking about seemingly little things like music being (occasionally) heard in public in Riyadh, issues like women's rights being discussed - albeit somewhat tamely by our standards - in the press, the fact that fields such as law, previously closed to female students, are now open to them, and so on.

Of course, it's still very much a case of two steps forward, one step back, and there are still powerful forces fighting against even the teeniest signs of 'liberalism' in the Kingdom. It's also clear that there is still a huge amount of work left to be done. However, I do think that those who complain about the 'glacial' pace of change need to be realistic. In historical terms, the social change which has occurred in KSA over the past half century has been profound, and actually very rapid. There are in fact few parallels in world history. I also - and I think we have discussed this issue here before - do not believe that Saudi society should be measured according to "Western" views of what society should be, with accompanying complaints when it seems that KSA is not metamorphosing into Sweden quite rapidly enough.

[Never Ceased To Be Amazed]

Oh, c'mon, Cleo! Even the first Saudi-made movie had to be viewed by Saudis OUTSIDE of Saudi! I stand by my "glacial" statement. Not meant as a criticism but as a realistic indicator. I mean, we went from "I have a dream..." to a black U.S. president in...what 40 years? They're still a-choppin' of heads in "Chop-chop Square" to this day. Times, they are a-changin'...at glacial speed!

NCTBA

[007]

Well, in the land of so called 'democracy', land of Uncle Sam, it took more than 100 years for an African American man to be the president of the United Sates of America. And it took less than 100 years for a woman in the Magic Kingdom to be a Minister!

So, I guess the rate of progress in society in the Magic Kingdom is much better than America!

The Magic Kingdom is heading in the right direction.

[sheikh radlinrol]

[johnslat]

Dear 007,
Congratulations - you win the flawed analogy of the decade contest. Just out of curiosity, do you think a Saudi woman could be "elected" to a post corresponding to "deputy minister" today?
Of course, even if "voting" were to come to pass in the Kingdom, do you think women would be "given" the vote?
It took about 144 years for women in the USA to get the vote (in August, 1920) but some states "gave" women the vote before that. And so . . .

"As war in Europe loomed, Rankin turned her attention to work for peace, and in 1916, ran for one of the two seats in Congress from Montana as a Republican. Her brother served as campaign manager and helped finance the campaign.
Jeannette Rankin won, though the papers first reported that she lost the election -- and Jeannette Rankin thus became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress, and the first woman elected to a national legislature in any western democracy."

I also agree with Cleopatra (Yikes - is this a first: both the Sheik and I agreeing with her?) I was in the Kingdom from 1980 to 2003 (with breaks), a total of nineteen years, and in that time I saw dramatic changes in Saudi society. For changes such as I saw to happen in such a relatively short period of time (societies, like ocean liners, take a loooonng time to change course) is remarkable.

[cmp45]

Changes may seem slow when compared to the west, but also agree that life in the kingdom does 'seem' to be more liberal even within the last 10 years. I think this has alot to do with exposure to internet, where people are able to exchange ideas and discuss sensitive topics openly; more people are exposed to outside influences.

However, the key to accellerating the rate of change is connected to serious educational reforms. The education curricullum needs to change in favor of developing stronger critical thinking skills at all levels of the system. Although this will not happen over night, I do believe if serious changes are made to encourage the way students learn and think then there may be hope for more positive changes. Only the Saudis can make it so...
...as I can't help wonder if it is not in the King's best interest to have a thinking society.

[veiledsentiments]

[Cleopatra]

[007]

[Cleopatra]

I think the idea that somehow Saudis are not capable of 'critical thinking' (silly phrase that it is) is rather patronising. I also think that those who believe that Saudis do not criticise their government, simply because they've never heard their students openly do so, are very naive.

[cmp45]

[cmp45]

[cmp45]

sorry double posting by accident