Spring Has Sprung
The Arab Spring has taken a small and faltering step forward in the unlikeliest of places - Saudi Arabia.
Where the all-powerful figure of King Abdullah has proclaimed that women will - in future - have the right to vote, to stand in elections and participate in the Shura - a kind of 'pretendy' parliament (as Billy Connolly might say) which advises the great monarch.
King Abdullah (87) - clearly a groovy kind of cat and keen to be seen moving with the times - announced in a recent speech:
"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia (law), we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama [clerics] and others … to involve women in the Shura council as members, starting from the next term.
Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote."
Heavens above!
Osama bin Laden will be 'birlin' in his grave - in the Arabian Sea somewhere - because Osama and his ilk are real traditionalists when it comes to women doing anything - other than having baies and doing the men's bidding of course.
Apparently the new 'rules' may also lead to women in Saudi Arabia - having more control over their daily own lives.
Because at the moment women have to get permission from a male relative - their husband, father, brother or even their sons - before they can drive a car, travel at home or abroad, get a job - or have a medical operation.
One thing's for sure - none of this will ever happend unless lots of women stand up for and argue for - extending their civil and human rights.
But it's a step forward - potentially a big step forward - and as everyone knows great oaks from little acorns grow.
Who would ever have thought that the refusal of Rosa Parks to obey an instruction give up her bus seat - for a white passenger in Alabama in 1955 - would have provided such inspiration to the civil rights movement in America?
Where the all-powerful figure of King Abdullah has proclaimed that women will - in future - have the right to vote, to stand in elections and participate in the Shura - a kind of 'pretendy' parliament (as Billy Connolly might say) which advises the great monarch.
King Abdullah (87) - clearly a groovy kind of cat and keen to be seen moving with the times - announced in a recent speech:
"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia (law), we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama [clerics] and others … to involve women in the Shura council as members, starting from the next term.
Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote."
Heavens above!
Osama bin Laden will be 'birlin' in his grave - in the Arabian Sea somewhere - because Osama and his ilk are real traditionalists when it comes to women doing anything - other than having baies and doing the men's bidding of course.
Apparently the new 'rules' may also lead to women in Saudi Arabia - having more control over their daily own lives.
Because at the moment women have to get permission from a male relative - their husband, father, brother or even their sons - before they can drive a car, travel at home or abroad, get a job - or have a medical operation.
One thing's for sure - none of this will ever happend unless lots of women stand up for and argue for - extending their civil and human rights.
But it's a step forward - potentially a big step forward - and as everyone knows great oaks from little acorns grow.
Who would ever have thought that the refusal of Rosa Parks to obey an instruction give up her bus seat - for a white passenger in Alabama in 1955 - would have provided such inspiration to the civil rights movement in America?
