The King's announcement might be viewed as an overdue recognition of what should be treated as an inalienable human right — but the move is not all it might appear to be. The hardline Salafist clergy who form the country's ulema have, according to the ruler, endorsed this limited form of women's suffrage. The clerics have little to fear at present. The municipal councils are virtually powerless, and even if women can stand for office they will find it extremely difficult to campaign or even to get to the polling stations (as they are banned from driving, not by any written law but by a fatwa). As for the Majlis, it is in no sense a representative assembly, as it is appointed by the King. In contrast, challenges to the driving ban have provoked far stronger reactions, with several women being stopped and questioned; some, clearly under duress, have signed promises not to drive again. The clergy's differing reactions to the issues expose the mutual dependence of the hard-boiled clerics and the royal family. The former, who are suspicious of the more liberal royals, provide the House of Saud with spiritual legitimation in a deeply conservative society. The latter ruthlessly suppress any expression of ideas that implies a departure from Salafist orthodoxy. The two dominant Saudi Arabian institutions evidently fear democracy and equality even more than they fear women at the wheel.