Last September, the first 400 students, including 20 Saudi women, arrived at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, astate-of-the-art coeducational graduate research institute endowed with $10 billion from the king’s personalcoffers. Located along the Red Sea shore 50 miles north of Jidda, KAUST represents a bold gamble by Abdullah to promote social change over the heated objections of his ownbackward-looking Wahhabi clerical establishment. Taboos of Saudi society have been thrown out the window: Women not only take classes together with men, they are allowed to drive on the campus and do not have to veil their faces.
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
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By kjfitz @ 2010-07-06 11:51:46