Major reshuffle in Saudi Arabia

[emad]

Source: bbc

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has sacked two powerful religious officials in a wide ranging shake-up of the cabinet and other government posts.

One of the dismissed men was the head of the controversial religious police force. The other was the country's most senior judge.

The king also appointed the country's first-ever female minister and replaced the head of the central bank.

..........................

Norah al-Faiz now holds the most senior official position a woman has held in Saudi Arabia. She has been appointed to the newly-created post of deputy education minister for women's affairs.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7890211.stm

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The recession may be crumbling at fundamentalist hardliners' grip on Saudi state coffers.

Glad to see a woman in the frame at last.

[NJCher]

1. yeah but

Is she an Arabic Sarah Palin?

This recession/economic crash is definitely having a "clean-out" effect, though.

Cher

[Dr.Phool]

3. Is she allowed to drive?

[Sultana]

27. Probably not in SA but most likely anywhere around the world

Last year I read an article about Saudi women living in Dubai who were pushing for women to be allowed to drive in SA. The wife of a Saudi diplomat to Dubai was against the notion of allowing Saudi women to drive but get this she drives and owns a car in Dubai. Oh, the hypocrisy!

:crazy:

[JCMach1]

30. The question to ask is 'does she want to drive' - driving is insane in the Middle-East

Given a choice, I would have my own driver too...! If they were good and safe drivers...

[trudyco]

34. Or vote?

[ensho]

2. thank you King for sane thinking and acting and

yea! to woman power. this world so needs it.

[Eryemil]

8. Oh yes. Very sane indeed...

*laugh*
This is still Saudi Arabia yo know. Last time I heard men were not allowed to walk dogs in the capital to avoid them coming in contact with women.
Of course, having a dog or a cat as a pet is illegal anyway. Or is it selling them? I'm not sure.

[Lucky Luciano]

9. I know Arabs in general think dogs are disgusting filthy

animals and are very hated. If only they knew how wonderful a dog is! Not sure how they feel about cats though the Ancient Egyptians obviously revered the kitties!

[ohio2007]

14. and don't even consider driving in the 'muslim only' highway lane

in Somalia today, beheading is the punishment for converting from isam to Xtian thought.

sorry

I won't post the google video but they do chant allah ahkbar at the 'lamb to slaughter' moment

[Sultana]

29. shhhhhh, don't you know it's the religion of peace

:sarcasm:

:eyes:

[KakistocracyHater]

19. except for Afghan hounds, I think.

So the "bad fashion sense" police head got fired? Will they reshuffle their priorities too, so if someone is wearing short sleeves in 100+ degree heat yet there is sewage running down the streets-finally they'll put in sewage pipes, instead of beating down the person dressing sensibly? Somehow I still have doubts...

[Lucky Luciano]

21. Not sure...but presumably the Afghan hounds are from Afghanistan...

...and Afghanistan is not Arab.

[KakistocracyHater]

22. Really? Who converted them to Islam?

& north Africa has Muslim.....stuff....I don't know...I thought there were Muslim values & customs...hmmm

[Thothmes]

23. The dislike of dogs may also be a Saudi or Arabic cultural

tradition, not necessarily an Islamic prohibition. When I was in Turkey, most of the shepards used dogs to help herd their flocks. Turkey is a Muslim country but its people are not from Arabic roots.

[Sultana]

26. Ottomans or the Mughals

:shrug:

[doodadem]

25. No, no--Saluki's

The Saluki breed is held in the highest regard, and not considered "dogs". Like the Arab horse, it is the oldest breed in the world, and depicted in ancient drawings.

They are very cool dogs......we used to have two of them, obtained from a friend of a friend/breeder who had fallen on hard times. Beautiful and highly intelligent, but like most Sighthounds (breeds that hunt by sight), they are not for most people. They are actually more like cats than dogs........

[Sultana]

28. Some believe that if a dog enters the home it will bring bad luck

Kitties are allowed to in the home.

Ancient Egyptians weren't muslims.

[Lucky Luciano]

33. Of course Ancient Egyptians were not muslims!

Mohamed came along in the 7th century AD! I did actually do a quick google and it seems that cats are ok for Arabs.

[JerseygirlCT]

31. Their culture looks down on dogs - they

are more like vermin to them.

(I heard many stories when my family lived in Bahrain of British ex-pats and others with stringent rules for pets' re-entry just abandoning the pets - they were usually shot in the street. My family ended up adopting one such dog. The butt-ugliest dog you've ever seen, and stupid to match. Which sort of made him more endearing to them, I think).

[Wizard777]

4. I think his majesty has made some wise decisions.

He has appointed a first time ever woman to a high ranking position. He will not even allow the religious police to abuse his subjects. They say there are no real changes ahead. I just don't see how that can be. I don't know how you can make historical and profound changes and not have that effect the future. That's like saying what occurs in micro doesn't effect whats happing in macro. That's simply untrue.

[Proletariatprincess]

6. A new administration in the USA may have influenced this change.

After all, GW was a close buddy to the Saudi family. Not having a close friend in the White House any more may have driven some new thinking. The end of an era, we can hope.

[Wizard777]

7. Once again, people don't like Bush nearly as much as Bush says they do.

That's all I'm saying on that.

[ohio2007]

15. To be fair, the situation in Pakistan not being taken lightly either

[JerseygirlCT]

32. It would be good to believe so, and believe that SA is moving in the

direction of say, Jordan.

But there's a long, long way to go. Right now, they remain one of the most despicable regimes on the planet.

[Chulanowa]

5. The fundie hardliners aren't affected by the economy

Most of them are too poor for it to impact them - which is a reason they are fundie ahrdliners.

However, as this state of poverty - and its attendant rise in religiosity - spreads into the "middle class" of Arabian society, King Abdullah is faced with two options. Either he can keep his grip, and probably end up with his head on a stick in a few years as his country turns itself into a new Somalia, or he can hike up that dishdash and start walking his broad ass towards democratic reform.

I'm not able to extend much hope. Appointing a woman to "deputy education minister for women's affairs" really.... I'm sorry, this doesn't strike me as an especially forward move, since the actual education minister for women's affairs is, of course, a man... But a little something is better than a lot of nothing, I suppose.

[Lucky Luciano]

10. Don't underplay this....small steps can lead to big leaps. nt

[Posteritatis]

13. +1 (nt)

[ohio2007]

16. The Saudi royal family ranks in excess of 30,000 members living on the oil dime

and the price of oil has declined to a level that could fuel insurrection in keeping that welfare expense floating above water

[Posteritatis]

17. None of which changes his point, of course (nt)

[ohio2007]

24. a small step taken five years ago by the house of Saud saw that 1/3 of of clerics in the kingdom

were dropped from the kings payroll for preaching radicalism even by Saudi standards. They moved into other professions or were sent out of the kingdom into other Saudi established swamps.


Wonder if this will be the last ever heard from these recently fired top dogs ?

lol

[DCKit]

18. "...30,000 members living on the oil dime."

Let's hope the funding for AQ is drying up too.

It's one thing when the money's flowing freely and you've got an extra million or two laying around allowing you to get all crazy and donate to a subversive cause, but fuck all when it starts cutting into your shoe budget or you have to fire half the house staff 'cause Cheney didn't deliver $200/barrel oil.

Geez, it's gotta suck being related to the Bush's.

[barb162]

20. That's what I hope.

For the Saudis to make any change is huge.

[Peace Patriot]

11. This is kind of like Colombia pretending to punish rightwing death squads with

close ties to the government and the military, who torture and kill union leaders, political leftists, small peasant farmers, human rights workers, journalists, or anybody who gets in the way of the narco-state. It's window-dressing, in Colombia's case, to get a "free trade" deal past the labor Democrats in the U.S. Congress; in Saudi Arabia's case, probably because the Bush Cartel doesn't directly control U.S. policy, for now. The Bushwhacks have the same opinion of women as the Saudi fascists do--chattel, to be veiled, silenced and forced to produce children. Since that view is out of power in the U.S., for now, the Saudis are trying to sweeten relations with the Obama administration. I am certainly not against any relief for the female chattel in Saudi Arabia--and maybe these moves will slightly improve their lot. But we shouldn't be fooled that any real liberalization is going on, any more than we should be fooled by the multinationals who rule our land, and can re-install Bushwhack fascists with their 'TRADE SECRET' code voting machines.

[ohio2007]

12. snuffing out a 5th column is one thing. Allowing true freedoms is another

there is only one thought allowed in the kingdom and the thought police still hold the monopoly in monotheistic preaching to dumb asses