While any movement toward good governance and alleviation of Saudi women’s maltreatment are welcome, these actions are theatrics devoid of substance. Why?

To begin with, Saudi municipal councils have no decision-making authority—only an advisory role on local affairs. Secondly, the government appoints one half of the councilors, thus, ensuring compliance with government wishes. Thirdly, elections are anathema to Riyadh rulers. The King’s decision will not be implemented for four years, until 2015 at the earliest, the presumed date of the next municipal elections. In the 2005 municipal elections, ten months had to elapse before the government announced the councils. That the royal decision was announced four days before the September 29, 2011 elections suggests that it was taken to placate Saudi masses in reaction to the 2011 Arab Spring that deposed the dictators of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Notwithstanding the right to vote and run as candidates, Saudi women’s ability to be effective candidates and councilors would be hindered by the long list of institutional and cultural discrimination against Saudi women and the country’s strict rules on the segregation of the sexes outside the home.

As guardians, fathers, husbands, and brothers control whether the women in their lives may or may not attend school, work, start a business, travel, or receive health care. Among others, Saudi women are banned from driving motorcars and the testimony of two women in a court of law equals the testimony of one man. Under such conditions, it would be difficult to see how a woman might campaign for office, meet electorates, and explain her election platform, assuming her guardian would acquiesce to her candidacy in the first place.

As for the decision to appoint women to the Consultative Council, that act is superfluous as well. The Consultative Council, as the name suggests, is advisory. It has no law making powers. Saudi Law is the Quran and the Sunna as interpreted by Wahhabi clerics and the King’s diktat. Formed in 1992 to advise the king on “important matters”, the Consultative Council’s 150 members plus its chairman are appointed by the monarch. The Council includes a dozen female “advisors”.

Genuine political and religious reforms require the democratic election of a representative legislative assembly to replace the current non-representative, non-legislative Council.

Is democratic election of a legislative assembly Islamic? The answer is in the affirmative. The prophet Muhammad reportedly said: “My community reaches no agreement that is an error”, according to the canonical Hadith collections of Abi Dawood, Al-Tirmithi, and Ibn Maja.

This Hadith makes the truth an outcome of the Muslim community’s agreement, a concept consistent with the legislative assemblies of the modern age. For centuries, gauging the public’s mood in the far-flung lands of the Muslim empires was not feasible. For Sunnis, the Consensus of the Ulama became a practical approximation to the agreement of the umma. However, the advent of electricity, computers, and modern polling techniques made the fulfillment of the Hadith possible.

Should women be included in such law making assemblies? The answer is yes. Since God promises paradise in the Quran (16:97 and 40:40) to all believers who do right, men or women, there is no reason why women should be excluded from legislative assemblies. On the extent to which acquiescence is required to render a communal agreements valid, Ibn Maja reported the Prophet saying: “In the event of disagreement, the opinion of the majority must prevail”.

Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey, countries representing about 60% of world Muslims, enjoy democratically elected legislative assemblies, including women deputies, prime ministers, and presidents.