In London, two Saudi women are set to participate in the Olympics today. But back in Saudi Arabia, millions of women and girls are effectively banned from practicing sports inside the Kingdom. Also, they aren't allowed to drive, although there is no law stipulating that.

RFJ [Rewards for Justice] is one of many tools that our government uses to fight terrorism, but it has proven to be an effective tool over the years" Robert Hartung, Assistant Director for Diplomatic Security's Threat Investigations and Analysis Directorate told CBS News in a statement, adding that the program "... has helped to save countless innocent lives.

“It is a good chance for Saudi families and children to discover more about the world’s largest Muslim country in terms of population, tourism opportunities, civilization and cultural heritage, and meet a number of Indonesian travel and tourism agencies,” said A. Fauzy Chusny, information officer from Indonesia Information and Cultural Affairs.

The only power Egypt once has had is the "soft power," specifically the propaganda machine and translated literary production in the areas of humanities and social sciences. Again, Egypt lost their soft power to Gulf countries either in the fields of media or literary production, particularly to Saudi Arabia (MBC, Al Arabiya, and other media outlets), Qatar (Al Jazeera), and United Arab Emirates.

Groups, agencies such as Amnesty International have the capacity to perform the role of soft power. Soft power functions well in democratic and transparent political systems. I am afraid to say that in systems such as Bahrain or others, soft power does not play a role in deciding policy.