Progress

Saudi College Breeds Tolerance

High-tech school pushes women's freedoms.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology opened last month in Saudi Arabia, but it's already managed to court controversy. The university, which fulfills King Abdullah's 25-year-old vision, educates women along with men, does not require them to wear the traditional black head-to-toe abayas or veil their faces, and allows women to drive. When an influential member of the government-sanctioned Supreme Committee of Islamic Scholars criticized the school for allowing men and women to mix, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz took the unprecedented step of removing him from his post by royal decree. The university is a tech head's dream, from its three-dimensional virtual reality room for studying archeology and coral reefs, to one of the world's faster supercomputers. To date, it is the most significant effort by a Persian Gulf country to diversity its economy from its reliance on oil wealth.