By Royal Decree Saudi Women Can Vote, but still can't drive...

By royal decree women can vote in the 2015 election, but they still cannot drive.  They also still need permission from a male family member.

King Abdullah's reformist stance, especially in regard to women's rights, has been evident since he ascended the throne in 2005. 

In his short speech on Sunday, interrupted by several standing ovations, he made this crystal-clear. Muslim women, he said, had given "opinions and advice since the era of Prophet Muhammad". 

The king added: "Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior clerics... to involve women in the Shura Council as members." 

The king said women's participation in the council would begin in the next session, in about 18 months' time. 

In addition, he said women would "have the right to nominate themselves" as candidates in elections for municipal councils and to vote in those elections when they are held in four years' time. 

Women, however, will not be allowed to vote in the current municipal council elections, which start on Thursday and will be held over several days. More than 5,000 men are competing as candidates in that poll.

At least one Saudi woman is predicting that she will be allowed to drive in the next year.

Ms Fahad says the royal decree only brings closer the day when Saudi women will be able to drive, because it makes the ban even more untenable. 

A Saudi woman, she observes, will soon be able to sit in the Shura, "but she can't drive her car?" However a royal decision on that, Ms Fahad believes, "will not take more than a year" to emerge.[BBC]