King Abdullah’s Cabinet Shuffle
Yesterday, King Abdullah reshuffled the Kingdom’s cabinet. It was the first cabinet shuffle since he came to the throne in 2005. Among the surprises of his appointments was placing a woman, Nora bint Abdullah al-Fayez as a woman deputy minister. She made history as being the first woman to be a deputy minister in Saudi Arabia when she was placed in charge of girls’ affairs in the Ministry of Education. While Western observers were pleased by al-Fayez’s placement, it was business as usual for the Saudis as a woman has traditionally been in charge of the girls section, but usually given a title such as mudir or administrative manager of the section.
Other changes included naming Abdul Aziz bin Muhiyuddin Khoja as the new minister of culture and information, replacing Iyad Madani. That was a disappointing change since the previous sitting Minister was educated in the United States and had a background in the arts which made his focus and emphasis on building bridges in a post 911 world through cultural performances in Europe, Africa and Asia. Khoja was educated in England, trained in chemistry and received training in the Information side of the Ministry. His tenure promises to be more pragmatic and internally focused than that of Iyad Madani.
Probably the most important change was the appointment of Abdul Aziz Al-Humain as head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. He replaced Ibrahim Al-Ghaith. Al-Humain is more of a morderate and will bring the Mutawwa or religious police more in line with a moderate role that the Saudi government has been advocating in the last couple of years.
