What a concept: woman to have input on women’s education in Saudi Arabia

Saudi King Abdullah has appointed a woman to the nation’s council of ministers for the country. Noor Al-Fayez will serve as deputy director for women’s education in Saudi Arabia, probably because there was no less-valued position on the council.

The appointment is a good sign, I suppose. Now she’ll just have to hope her husband is willing to drive her to work, so she can perform her new duties. But maybe there’s no reason for her to actually show up at the office, since as the State Department reports, under the traditional Saudi interpretation of Islamic law, men and women are not allowed to attend public events together, and are segregated in the workplace (pretty much like Democrats and Republicans in our Congress).

The United States won’t formally complain about any of that that, of course, because Saudi Arabia’s hold on the world’s largest oil reserves guarantees handholding on the part of American presidents. Despite our long series of misadventures in Iraq, the eye-gouging nation of Saudi Arabia also was the home country of 15 of the hijackers who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11 .