One Small Step For Women, One Giant Leap for the Magic Kingdom?

Breaking news from the Magic Kingdom: It looks like the Wahhabis have been shamed into giving chicks the vote. Here's the Beeb's account of this momentous event:

Women in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in municipal elections, the Gulf Kingdom's King Abdullah has announced.

He said they would also have the right to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council.
The news will be welcomed by activists who have long called for greater rights for women in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

The changes will take effect from next year, the king said.

King Abdullah announced the move in a speech at the opening of the new term of the Shura Council.

"Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama [clerics] and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from next term," he said.

"Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote."

The BBC's world affairs correspondent Emily Buchanan says it is an extraordinary development for women in Saudi Arabia, who are not allowed to drive or leave the country unaccompanied.

She says there has been a big debate about the role of women in the country and, although not everyone will welcome the decision, such a reform will ease some of the tension that has been growing over the issue.

Careful, Wahhabis. You let chicks vote in a local election and next thing you know they'll want to drive automobiles, and go to the mall without their father or brother to chaperone them, and throw off their all-encompassing sharia fun sacks.

Then again, you let chicks vote in a local election (to get folks off your back) and then maybe you never have to let them do any of the other stuff.