Saudi prince's reform: Car race, concerts, but no criticism

Saudi prince's reform: Car race, concerts, but no criticism:

Women, some without headscarves, drove themselves to a Formula-E car race where thousands of young Saudis and hundreds of international visitors partied into the night at concerts by Enrique Iglesias, The Black Eyed Peas and DJ David Guetta.

It’s a vision of Saudi Arabia that epitomizes Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s top-down reform efforts. The spectacle would have been unthinkable until recently in the ultra-conservative kingdom where religious police used to enforce strict gender segregation, scolded women for not covering their hair and barged into restaurants to demand music be turned off.

The concerts and car race cap several months of profound change in Saudi Arabia, including the opening of the first movie theater in April and the lifting of the world’s only ban on women driving in June.