The
Wall Street Journal reports that on Friday, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud took steps to liberalize the country's religious police by placing a new person in charge of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The king replaced hard-liner Sheik Abdulaziz al-Humain with Sheik Abdulatif al-Sheikh. The new appointee has a history of opposing child marriage, and of defending women's right to work and mix with men in public places.