Two Sides of Saudi Arabia Revealed on the Same Day

I read a few Google news headlines today that said Saudi Arabia was loosening up their restriction on women's suffrage. King Abdullah has declared that women will be able to vote and run in the 2015 local elections, and be on his advisory council. I wonder why it takes 3 1/2 years to make the necessary accommodations for this to happen, but hey, it's an old monarchy.

It takes societies a long time to shake off the conventions that have built up over generations. Whether enshrined in religious law or made common by practice, prejudices die hard.

Seriously, we aren't a whole lot better. I mean, prior to the Voting Rights Act being passed, blacks in America didn't have reliable access to the polls. Even though given the vote in 1870 by the 15th Amendment to US Constitution, it wasn't until 1965 that literacy tests and other racially-motivated blocks to voting were removed. 

So I start to think, "Hey, not bad for an ancient kingdom. Three and a half years is pretty quick"... and then I read that a court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced two women each to ten lashes with a whip for driving an automobile. So much for easing up on Sharia rule.