Saudi women will have the right to join the advisory Shura Council (consultative assembly) as full members and participate in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has said.
The announcement came days before municipal elections where women will be excluded.
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country's ban on female drivers.
The woman, identified only as Shema, was found guilty of driving in Jeddah in July.
Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai has died in Nairobi while undergoing cancer treatment at the age of 71.
In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, every hour in the day some 48 women are raped. That is around 1,100 rapes a day, leaving many thousands of women and children with broken lives and little hope for their futures.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has overturned a court ruling sentencing a woman to 10 lashes for breaking a ban on female drivers, reports say.
The two women running for the presidency of Cameroon have broken a psychological barrier among women about aspiring for high political office, says a campaigner for women’s participation in politics.
Women's rights activists in Tunisia have scored some major successes since the Jasmine Revolution that ousted President Ben Ali in January 2011.
Uganda has been recognized as one of the few African countries making progress in implementing a United Nations Resolution that compels states to respect the rights of women during and after conflict.
Saudi Arabia held its second-ever municipal elections on Thursday. More than 5,000 candidates competed for 816 seats to fill half of the country's 285 councils - the other half are appointed by the government.