MAQzine

Guess Who is Surrounded With Bare-Faced Saudi Women? Yes, you made a correct guess.  Here is HRH King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.   The undated photograph showed the kingdom's two most powerful men together with more than three dozen smiling women at a seminar on health and the community in the southwestern city of Najran held several weeks ago. The photograph was published in several leading newspapers including Okaz, Ashahrq al-Awsat and Al-Watan, each with a close link to senior members of the ruling royal family. Source :  http://saudiamber.blogspot.com/2010/05/king-abdullahs-photo-seen-as-new.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Is it really a sign of big change in the society of Saudi Arabia or just a face saving effort by the Saudi rulers to prove that they are with  anti-segregationist reformers.

By Ulf Laessing and Asma Alsharif - - - - - o o o o o - - - - - THUWAL, Saudi Arabia, Sept 23 - - - - - o o o o o - - - - - (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia opened its first co-educational university on Wednesday, a high-tech campus with massive funds which reformers hope will spearhead change in the Islamic state. Western diplomats hope the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), which has attracted more than 70 professors and 800 students from abroad, will stimulate reform after recent setbacks such as shelving municipal elections and cancelling cultural events opposed by clerics. - - - - - o o o o o - - - - - King Abdullah has promoted reforms since taking office in 2005 to create a modern state, stave off Western criticisms and lower dependence on oil.But he faces resistance from conservative clerics and princes in Saudi Arabia, one of the world's top oil exporters. - - - - - o o o o o - - - - - Al Qaeda militants launched a campaign against the state in...