Revolution vs evolution

The Washington Post's Jim Hoagland on the political revolution in Iraq:

Look beyond the jockeying for jobs in Iraq's embryonic transitional government. Focus instead on the final results in that Arab country's matrix-breaking election. They reveal a little-publicized result that President Bush, feminist organizations and democracy advocates should be shouting from the rooftops.

Nearly one-third of the 140 winning candidates on the Shiite parliamentary list are women. Moreover, those 45 women from the list supported by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani tend to be more educated, better informed and more committed to change than are their male counterparts, who include a number of political hacks.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal in the keynote address at the “Two Kingdoms: Facing the Challenges Ahead" conference in London:

Our educational reforms have created a new generation of highly educated and professionally trained Saudi women who are acquiring their rightful position in Saudi society. I am proud to mention here that this year we shall have women working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the first time.

Referring to political reform, the Saudi minister said the Kingdom believed that it must be evolutionary and must fulfill the requirements of its people. “This month, we have commenced the process of electing municipal council members as a step in testing the water. The Saudi minister of Islamic affairs has recently declared that there is nothing in Islam that prohibits women from participating in elections...I would not be surprised if they take part in the next round of elections.”

There's no hiding the fact that the Saudi government doesn't want women to participate in the political process and is dragging its feet. What sort of democracy will evolve? I'm guessing it will be neither pretty nor popular.

And, why aren't feminists celebrating the victory for women in Iraq? The answer's obvious so I won't bother.