Clever. Give them the right to vote in rigged elections.
They’ll be kept at home by their husbands anyway! Or beaten and told how to vote!
It means NOTHING. It’s not a response to internal power by women, it’s a response to external criticism.
So expect to see some nice pictures of women voting sometime soon, but it means nothing.
LOL. Women freely beaten by their husbands, be divorced by the man for any reason, testimony counts as half a man, must dress in trash bags to cover the beatings, but they can vote in rigged elections.
Additionally, to the best of my knowledge there are no political parties (as we would define them) existent in the Kingdom.
And as you said, it’s most likely a response to a lot of external criticism from many parts of the world.
On the other hand, I knew some Saudis in Berlin....the men were complaining that their wives were henpecking them, and there was nothing they could do about it. It reminds me of the classical stereotype that all Asian women are submissive to their husbands......yeah, right. More like the iron talon in the velvet glove, at least in my experiences in the Far East.