MBS’s reforms have led to a social revolution in Saudi Arabia by empowering women and expanding industries such as tourism, even as challenges remain in diversifying the economy away from oil dependency and ensuring sustainable growth as part of an ambitious vision for transformation
Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor-in-chief of the British weekly The Economist, first visited Saudi Arabia in 2016 to interview then-deputy crown prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS), his first such on-the-record media interaction. The interview made global headlines. MBS, who had already emerged as the power behind his father King Salman’s throne, laid out his blueprint for sweeping reforms and broke the news to The Economist of the plan to list shares in the oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Company, or Aramco.
Beddoes interviewed MBS late into the night in his desert retreat outside Riyadh. She found him confident, in a hurry, and determined to transform Saudi Arabia. Those were still early days in MBS’s reforms. Beddoes found Saudi Arabia rigid and repressive. She called the experience of visiting the country bizarre at that time, noting officials tried to persuade her to wear the loose over-garment, the abaya.
Beddoes visited the country when women were disallowed to drive or travel without a man’s permission. They were almost absent from public spaces. Saudi Arabia has since come a long way, with MBS’s reforms radically transforming it. The Saudi Arabia Beddoes visited in 2016 is long gone, both socially and politically. In May 2025, Beddoes wrote that Saudi Arabia is now a stabilising influence in the Middle East. She noted MBS advises dealmaking with Iran and an end to Israel’s genocidal military campaign in Gaza.
Stunning Social Revolution
MBS’s reforms have ushered in an unparalleled social revolution. Women are now free to travel, work, and live where they like. The change is extraordinary and a key component of MBS‘s reforms. The public life and much of the labour market are now open for Saudi women. In a speech in Washington in November 2023, former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, said MBS’s reforms were revolutionizing Saudi Arabia and focused on women’s empowerment and generating social change and economic opportunities. He called MBS’s reforms a commitment to moderation, eliminating extremism, and unleashing the potential of Saudi Arabia.
Vision 2030 is a blueprint for breaking old negative cycles and replacing them with positive practices, domestically and internationally, because instability, extremism, disharmony, and division are destructive cycles that hold back the full potential of the region.
Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud
Zero-Tolerance to Extremism
Saudi Arabia has prioritised equality and modernisation of social laws. It has expanded cultural, arts, and entertainment opportunities and improved the lives, especially of women. The Saudis are addressing intolerance, reforming the educational system, promoting inter-faith dialogue, and adopting zero tolerance to extremism.
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Saudis are encouraging tourism with a commitment to cooperation and partnership by working on building peace, stability, and cooperation. They are working towards a more stable and secure Middle East and world. MBS’s vision focuses on alliances, partnerships, negotiations, and investments for a better and prosperous future. He recognises the Middle East’s diversity and seeks inclusivity to become an engine of economic growth.
A ban on cinemas and concerts has been rescinded. Fun is no longer limited to indoors or subject to the now-disbanded vice squad’s scrutiny. Rock stars regularly perform on stage. Young people revel in their freedoms. In early 2025, American singer Jennifer Lopez, clad in a catsuit, performed ahead of the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Jeddah. A DJ enthralls young Riyadh’s open-air mall, Boulevard City.
New Industries
MBS’s reforms have fostered new industries such as tourism and carmaking, with a target of producing 500,000 electric vehicles annually by 2030. They involve heavy investments in resorts and attractions. A ski village overlooking a desert, 50 luxury hotels along the Red Sea, and the world’s biggest building in Riyadh are important features of the project. Tourism has grown. The overnight stays have risen from around 60 million in 2016 to over 100 million in 2023. Gathern, the Saudi version of Airbnb, founded in 2017, has emerged as one of the country’s biggest startups.
MBS’s reforms have increased the share of household spending on recreation, culture, and eating out to nearly 20% in 2024 from 12% in 2017, according to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, the country’s central bank. The religious police no longer roam the streets, ensuring shops are closed for the five daily prayers. Women can leave their homes without a male relative, and the sexes mingle anywhere. All restaurants cater to both men and women. The high streets bustle with women moving freely like men. Cinemas screen both Arabic and Hollywood films.
Driving schools for women are in great demand. Rules have been rewritten from divorce to foreign investment. Stultifying social strictures have been eased, winning MBS’s goodwill. The social revolution has expanded freedoms and boosted economic activity. More women have begun working and starting businesses. Discriminating against women in hiring or pay has been criminalised.
The women’s participation in the workforce has increased from 20% to 36%, which is better than in major countries such as India. Household incomes have gone up with the growing dual-income families. MBS’s reforms have encouraged many to return to Saudi Arabia as social changes gain wide acceptance.
A Force For Order
MBS has earned praise for transforming Saudi Arabia into a force for order, apart from the country of riches. He has made amends for the war he waged in 2015 in Yemen against the Houthis by prevailing on other countries to wind down their conflict with them. A Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen caused high civilian casualties and helped the Houthis rally support. The Houthis emerged stronger after the Saudi-led war.
US President Donald Trump on May 6 announced the end of a bombing campaign against the Houthis after over two months of airstrikes on over 1,000 targets. The Houthis attacked international shipping in the Red Sea and Israel in response to the genocidal military campaign in Gaza. April Longley Alley, a former Senior Expert for the Gulf States and Yemen at the United States Institute of Peace, underlined the importance of Saudi Arabia in dealing with the Houthis.
In an article in the American magazine Foreign Affairs, Alley wrote that the group will continue to wreak havoc both in Yemen and across the region unless Washington quickly coordinates with regional allies, particularly Saudi Arabia, in a broader effort to maintain military, economic, and political pressure on the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia under MBS has used its influence to host talks as part of efforts for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, which have been at war for over three years. MBS has backed dealmaking with Iran after renewing relations with Tehran as per the changed geopolitical realities, discarding policies pursued in the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian revolution that stoked sectarianism. Saudis have promised investments in war-ravaged Syria after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime. They have helped the new Syrian government by paying some of the World Bank’s debts.
Saudi Arabia has aligned its foreign policy to catalyze the social and economic reforms at home by ensuring stability in the neighbourhood. MBS understands that oil revenues cannot sustain Saudi Arabia forever. Young Saudis, accounting for two-thirds of the native population, need jobs. He needs a stable neighbourhood for a risk-free environment for foreign investors. MBS envisions a flourishing region for more customers for Saudi products and boosting tourism, a key goal of his transformative vision.
The futuristic NEOM, a city stretching across the desert for 170km, and a cube the size of 20 Empire State buildings are among the ‘giga-projects’ that mark the new Saudi Arabia. A sovereign-wealth fund has backed over 100 electric vehicles, e-sports, coffee-making, and chip manufacturing firms to create new industries.
Far To Go
Saudi Arabia’s wholesale social transformation has bought the government time and goodwill to reshape the economy. In May 2025, The Economist noted the kingdom has come further than many would have predicted through the will of one man, MBS. The British weekly noted ‘a vast state-funded machine is working hammer and tongs to re-engineer the country’s future.’
The Economist questioned whether Saudi Arabia can restrain itself as it still has far to go in realizing MBS’s vision for reducing dependency on oil and diversifying the Saudi economy. The Saudi hospitality and leisure industry may be thriving, but about 60% of its revenue still comes from crude oil exports. The money was being channelled into public spending, raising costs and crowding out private enterprise.
Vanity projects threaten to frustrate MBS’s attempts to transform Saudi Arabia into a globalised, 21st-century economy from a petrostate and provide a more conducive environment for firms and foreign investors. The Economist said that change has begun on the economic front, but warned it is not fast enough and potentially has grave consequences for MBS’s reform project.
