Saudi Arabia's clerics protest appointment of women to govt. body

The Saudi King (not dead yet?) has appointed 30 women to "a body that advises the government on new laws" and some of the wahhabi clerics have taken to the streets protesting the move.

The chances that these 30 women will make laws that would benefit Saudi women is wishful thinking.  Most of them would be women who are hellbent on either keeping the present draconian laws or  lessening the impact of those laws by a tiny degree that would be so miniscule it would not be noticed as any positive change at all ...and that particular cavewomen trait from these females would have had to be the primarily reason they were chosen.  Things are never as they seem.  Saudi Arabia's govt. is the most effective manipulative country in the world  because we don't give them credit for being so.

I went looking for a vid of the protest and found that Iran's PressTV is going bonkers over this development and has taken the opportunity to show how harsh a country   Saudi Arabia happens to be and of course include Israel in the mix.  Nothing gets cooked in Iran without adding that all important spice ... Israel.  If only they would take Israel out of the equation, some of their opinions on Saudi Arabia and Qatar are pretty accurate and would be worth listening to.

From ThePenisula:
....JEDDAH: Dozens of Saudi clerics  staged a rare protest in front of the Royal Court yesterday against the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz’s decision to appoint women to a body that advises the government on new laws, a sign of growing conservative unease at modest social reforms. 
On Friday, King Abdullah appointed 30 women to the Shura Council, giving them a fifth of the seats in the consultative body - a move he promised to make in 2011.
The kingdom’s top religious authorities including the Grand Mufti accepted that decision, but the gathering of about 50 clerics outside the Royal Court suggested wider disquiet among conservatives in the world’s top oil producer. 
A Saudi activist in touch with the clerics confirmed the accuracy of photographs showing them standing in a group as they demanded a meeting with King Abdullah and his top aide Khaled Al Tuwaijri, seeking to offer them “advice”.
Tuwaijri, the Royal Court chief of staff, is believed to be King Abdullah’s right-hand man and is seen by many Saudis as a driving force behind the country’s cautious reforms. 
“The clerics were in front of the royal court to address the king and Tuwaijri with regard to women in the Shura Council ... they waited for two hours but were denied access,” Waleed Abu Al Khair said by phone.
Saudi Arabia has little tolerance for dissent and allows clerics wide powers in society where they dominate the judicial system and run their own police squad to enforce religious morals.
In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive and need permission from their male guardians -father, husband or brother - to go abroad or take certain jobs.
This is the second time in two days that clerics, who have issued a religious edict banning any kind of public protest, have publicly expressed concern at decisions by the king.
“There is a contradiction ... The real Salafis do not do what these (clerics) are doing,” said political analyst Khaled Al Dakheel.
“Maybe we are now faced with a socio-political change in the society where we have the traditional Salafi school of thought that adheres to all its principles and now there is a new generation of Salafis emerging that hopes for different proposals. This requires examination,” Dakheel said.....