What major issues does Saudi Arabia have right now?

What major issues does Saudi Arabia have right now?
Answer 1
AIDS

Answer 2
There are an extensive myriad of problems that exist in SaudiArabia, including but not limited to:

Corrupt Rulers and No Infrastructure: Saudi rulersare content to deprive their people of modern infrastructure anddevelopment. They prefer to hoard the money their people give themto build palaces and repressive armies to protect those palaces. Asa result, many of the necessary infrastructural and developmentalchanges which should have happened never occurred. This leads toimmense poverty, even though oil resources make the country verywealthy.

Regional Disunity: Muslims have gone to war witheach other at numerous times and in numerous places. Nearly everyborder in the Arab World has played host to a military engagementof some type. The Arab World has never had anything even close tothe European Union or the Schengen Border Agreement (forget theMuslim World). (The Arab League and the Organization of IslamicConference are much more like the United Nations and have nosuperstate components.) Although Muslims, as individuals, may feelconnected across borders, like those between Morocco and Algeria orthose between Syria and Lebanon or those between Egypt, Sudan, andLibya, their governments do not.

Anti-Educational: There is a strong and pervasiveattitude in Saudi Arabia that a Western-style education, seeking ahigh degree of literacy and scientific knowledge is undesirable.Instead, there is a strong pull towards a religious education. Thisleads to minimal technological innovation in Muslim-majoritycountries like Saudi Arabia today. No Saudi has ever won a NobelPrize.

Lack of Human Rights: Saudi Arabian subjects aredenied fundamental human rights such as equality before the law,freedom to express their opinions (even if they are unpopular),freedom of assembly, equality for women in education and marriagerights, freedom of movement, an end to the unofficial slave trade,and other infringements. Statistics have shown a high-level ofcorrelation between the presence of human rights and economic andpolitical affluence.

Foreign Policy Over Domestic Concerns: Many Saudisare concerned about irrelevant foreign policy issues among Muslimsand Non-Muslims in other countries. The Cypriot situation and theIsraeli-Palestinian Conflict are wholly irrelevant to Saudis, butpeople in those countries spend an inordinate amount of timediscussing those issues. That time comes out of discussions aboutwhat to do about serious problems in those countries such aswomen's education or the lack of infrastructure. If there is noclamor for these domestic improvements, they will not happen.

Failure to Compromise: Unlike Western Societieswhich see public debates and elections as a fair mechanism fordeciding which opinions should get the Right of Way, many in theMiddle East prefer to staunchly advocate their position by whatevermeans are necessary because they are assured of their correctness(either by God or personal conviction). This means that bothdomestic and international policy issues that produce gridlock havethe potential to erupt in conflict and extreme measures as opposedto a general consensus that people can agree to even if they arenot in love with it.

Tribal Conflicts: There are numerous tribes thathave long-standing feuds with one another and threaten to disturbthe peace. Creating a national identity is critical for making thestate safe enough for domestic commerce.

Lack of Women's Rights: In Saudi Arabia, womenhave been increasingly unable to get an education. Women cannotdrive nor can they vote in the municipal elections where men canvote. Muslim-majority countries have typically been behind WesternStates in the proliferation of women's rights, but this is moretypical third world countries in Africa and Asia than just theIslamic ones. In many cases, women in Muslim countries are afraidto go to the police out of fear of being raped by the police aswell, being honor-murdered by someone in her family, or beingcharged as criminally liable for getting raped. Since Western lawprotects rape victims against rapists, rape victims are morewilling to seek government help.