Middle East News
Sweeping Changes in Saudi Government
14 Feb 2009 Ri yadh KSA: King Abdullah on Saturday made sweeping changes to his government, axing the head of the religious police and appointing Saudi Arabia's first-ever woman deputy minister in the biggest shakeup since he took over the throne.
Analysts said the changes continued Abdullah's cautious modernisation of the country's arch-conservative education, legal and social environments.
The reshuffle included naming new education, justice, information and health ministers, a new leader of the consultative Shura council, new central bank chief and the appointment of a woman deputy education minister for female education affairs.
Norah al-Fayez, currently an official at the Saudi Institute for Public Administration, became the first holder of the new job, the most senior ever granted to a woman in the Muslim kingdom.
In another major change, Abdullah sacked hardliner Sheikh Ibrahim al-Ghaith, the head of the Muttawa religious police, seen by many Saudis as a force opposed to some of the liberalisation proposed under his regime.
Under Ghaith, the Muttawa, who enforce Saudi Arabia's strict-but-eroding Islamic social mores, such as complete separation of unrelated members of the opposite sexes and Saudi women shrouding themselves completely in black while in public, have been widely feared.
0 Comments
Posted on 15 Feb 2009 by admin
|
