Saudi Arabia.

[Strong Atheist]

<snip>

by appointing the first woman to a ministerial post

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saudi-shuffle15-2009feb15,0,4473844.story

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. The royal family is also distancing themselves

from the Wahhabists, taking away some of the power of the religious clerics. I think they realize that the religious fundamentalists were getting too powerful--and who knows? Maybe they also finally READ the Qur'an for themselves!

[Warpy]

2. They've also got 2 generations of women educated in the west

who are chafing against the Mediaeval restrictions of the Wahabbist morality police.

I've been able to talk to quite a few of these women and all mentioned the prohibitions against driving and the restrictions against going out unaccompanied by a father or brother as the most onerous. Sometimes they just want to hop in the car and go shop, something we take for granted but which takes a great deal of advance planning for them to do.

They're also realizing the oil will run out some day and that they won't be able to employ people from overseas to do the work the Wahabbists find immoral, like nursing.

In any case, there is tremendous pressure to modernize from within the royal family as well as from without.

They are going to be very interesting to watch. If they don't modernize, the royals are running the risk of not being royals any more.

[TellTheTruth82]

3. Prohibition on driving

The prohibition on driving has been mostly lifted in that area, however, since the need to accompanied has not (in all countries anyway), it basically makes moot the issue of driving. Some shopping malls now have "women only" hours, and woe be to any many in the mall during those times. I'm not sure I'd classify that as progress - maybe it is - but I don't believe it is the women who are going to make the change, though they will certainly contribute - it will be the younger generations.