Khashoggi himself warned about MBS's use of progressive reforms to distract from his rapid and often brutal consolidation of power. Progressive reform happens p

Khashoggi himself warned about MBS's use of progressive reforms to distract from his rapid and often brutal consolidation of power. Progressive reform happens piecemeal because policy makers, activists, the public, etc have limited time, attention span, and emotional energy, but there must be an underlying cultural shift for it to last. Otherwise, it's just pandering that carries a great risk of hiding worsening atrocities - like KSA's war in Yemen or, as Khashoggi wrote in the posthumous WaPo article, MBS's crackdown on the press in general. I mean, in a twist of macabre irony, many of the activists who led the push for reforms like letting women drive are now in prison. That doesn't sound like a government genuinely interested in reform.