King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia surprised his ultraconservative nation Sunday by announcing bold reforms that for the first time will give women the right to vote, run for local office and serve on the Shura Council, the king's advisory board.

The measures by an aging monarch who has battled Islamic hard-liners for years will marginally improve the standing of women in a country that still forbids them to drive or leave the house without their faces covered. The moves appear likely to enrage religious conservatives while advancing at least a veneer of change in one of the world's most repressive states.

"Because we refuse to marginalize women in society in all roles that comply with sharia [Islamic law], we have decided … to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term," the king said in a five-minute speech to his advisors.

He added: "Women will be able to run as candidates" in the 2015 municipal election "and will even have a right to vote."
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Yet discriminatory laws, such as those preventing women from driving, have become an international embarrassment for the kingdom, a key U.S. ally that relies on oil wealth to expand its diplomatic stature. A number of women were arrested over the summer for defying the driving ban. Analysts predicted that by allowing women to vote the king has opened the possibility for wider rights debates.

But others said the latest reforms were diversions that did little to change the plight of women in a country where they can be flogged for adultery and cannot travel abroad without the permission of a male guardian.

Is the Saudi king worried about an Arab Spring coming to his nation?

Well, to put things in perspective: women have had the right to vote and run for election in Iran for thirty years. And elected officials will probably have more power in Iran than they do in Saudi Arabia. Not saying this isn't a good step, but Saudi Arabia is still way behind everybody in the middle East except the Taliban on women's rights.