Let’s all give the world’s quietest, tiniest "yay" for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which last week began allowing women to register to vote in municipal elections for the first time. The change has been a long time coming: The late King Abdullah actually agreed the voting reform in 2011, but delayed its effect until this year.

Saudi women campaigned for this right for years, and their achievement shouldn’t be minimized. But Saudi Arabia remains an autocratic hereditary monarchy and one of the most repressive nations on Earth for women. This reform is not much more than window dressing that, in its superficiality, calls attention to just how unfree the country remains — particularly for women.

Why, just imagine what Saudi Arabia would be like if the country made similar progress on other desperately needed reforms. Here's what we can expect if Saudi Arabia continues to make largely empty, surface-level reforms to its systemically unjust policies: