Dubai has a woman judge

I rarely have anything positive to say about the Gulf, but you must give Dubai some credit for this.

Gulfnews: Dubai appoints 27-year-old as first woman judge

Women can achieve just as much as men, Dubai's first woman judge, Ebtisam Ali Rashid Al Bedwawi, told Gulf News on Thursday.

Ebtisam, 27, became the first woman to work as a judge in the Dubai Courts Department (DCD) after she was sworn in before His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Thursday evening.

Twenty-seven seems awfully young, though. Surely there are qualified women in Dubai with more life experience.

It makes me wonder if this is at least partly dictated by clan affiliations. How many people reach that level of achievement and expertise in their careers by the age of 27? (It wouldn't do, presumably, to have the the first such post be held by a non-Emirati woman, even though foreigners run their whole society. )