Photograph of King Abdullah surrounded by 40 women professionals marks a breakthrough in the country's society and politics

This picture could change Saudi Arabia

Photograph of King Abdullah surrounded by 40 women professionals marks a breakthrough in the country's society and politics

Symbolic: The presence of the crown prince (right) along with the king suggests that the promotion of the rights of women has the backing of the royal family and is likely to continue after his death. Pic/AFP

The photograph, showing King Abdullah and his brother and heir apparent, Crown Prince Sultan, alongside 40 women dressed in abayas appeared with little explanation in several newspapers with close ties to the royal family.

The women were described as participants in a "National Dialogue Forum on Society and Health Services".

But the real importance of the picture was its timing. The country is in the middle of a major debate about the future of rules previously strictly enforced by the religious police banning the sexes mixing in public.

The royal family is already believed to have intervened in the argument once.

When the head of the religious police in Mecca gave interviews saying he saw nothing in Shariah outlawing mixing, he was sacked. Two hours later he was reinstated, after, it was rumoured, the direct intervention of a prince.

The photograph of the king "mixing" unabashedly with a group of smiling professional women is all the more important because of two extra pieces of symbolism.

Prince too

The presence of the crown prince suggests that the king's promotion of the rights of women has the backing of the royal family and is likely to continue after his death.

The king, who is 85, last year opened a science university in his name where mixing is specifically permitted, and appointed the country's first woman minister.

Secondly, while all the women have their hair more or less covered, all but a handful have their faces exposed, in contradiction to the practice of most Saudi women in public.

5% of Saudi Arabia's work force is made up of women -- the lowest proportion in the world

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