Saudi Arabia is one of the strictest theocracies in the world, especially towards women. Women aren’t permitted to appear in public unless fully covered and without a male escort. At the moment they can’t vote or run for public office. They are not permitted to drive a car and one of the few moments of freedom permitted is the occasional trip to a women’s only shopping mall. Of course, one must be wealthy enough to hire transportation and the money to afford what’s being offered in these places.

A couple of months ago a group of Saudi women rebelled and took to the streets behind the wheel of their husband’s automobiles. One of the movement’s leaders was found guilty of violating Saudi’s strict religiously based laws and punished to 10 lashes of the whip, a public flogging. 

Recent news has informed us that the King has proclaimed in a few years Saudi women will be permitted to vote and seek public office. Today’s headline tell us that a benevolent King Abdullah has spared the condemned woman driver from her 10-lashings.

Ya just gotta’ love a benevolent theocratic King who’s willing to turn his red-checkered covered head away from the enforcement of brutal age-old Sharia Law.  Especially when the eyes of the world are on him. Ya also gotta’ wonder what kind of similar theocratic legal principles would evolve under the administrations of a Michelle Bachmann or a Rick Perry. Both admittedly believers in a theocracy based upon the teachings of the Christian Bible’s New Testament (with just enough Old Testament tossed in for an added layer of flavor).