as a wise move -- and brought in young blood and fresh ideas to the Majlis al Shura , the closest thing the country has to a parliament . That these changes happened should not be a surprise . Since he took over as king in August 2005 , when his ailing half-brother Fahd died , King Abdullah has been working quietly to bring about change . Indeed , al-Faiz used to lead the king 's Center for National Dialogue , a sort of talking shop that allowed issues such as women 's rights to be debated . The hope was that as discussions about change bubbled up in national and regional arenas , they would also filter out to newspapers and onto television . It 's exactly what 's been happening . The king is well into his 80s and inherited many ministers and other top officials almost as old as him . Many had been in their posts for decades , and many , unlike the king , held their conservative upbringings more than half a century ago to be models for the country 's future . So when a judge recently upheld the marriage of a 47-year-old
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- What could be bigger than the appointment of the first female minister in Saudi Arabia ? Saudi King Abdullah made more than one noteable appointment to his council of ministers . Possibly the appointment of a new minister of justice who may actually help her get equal rights with her male counterpart . Right now , Norah al-Faiz , the new deputy minister for women 's education , is bound by the same laws as every other woman in the land . She can do only what her closest male relative permits . For many women of her status and education , that law is interpreted liberally , but for the vast majority , it is not . Over the weekend , at a single stroke , King Abdullah set Saudi Arabia on what appears to be an irreversible new course , one of modernization . He replaced the conservative ministers of justice and the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice with people closer to his way of thinking . The king also appointed a new head of the central bank , SAMA -- widely seen by financial experts