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In Riyadh and in Jeddah, though not in a few more liberal places such as Qatif, the clerics—who always opposed female participation in the elections—have stopped the new female local councillors from sitting in the council chambers with men.
在利雅得和吉達，盡管不是像卡提夫那樣的自由城市，那些一直以來禁止新任女性議員和男性一同坐在會議室里的傳教士，他們也一直反對女性參與到競選當中。
But to clerical consternation, (veiled) women now operate the tills in Ikea, a Swedish furniture outlet, in a poorer part of Riyadh, and men and women queue in mixed aisles.
讓阿訇驚愕的是，在利雅得一個較為落后地區，（戴面紗的）女性已在宜家家居（瑞典的家具專營店）從事收銀員的工作，而且男女在混合走道中一同排隊結賬。
At the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology outside Jeddah, male and female students attend the same lectures and mingle freely.
在地處吉達旁的阿卜杜拉國王科技大學里，男女同學可一起參加同一門課的學習并且自由地往來。
Architects of new office blocks locate male and female toilets on the same floor.
新辦公樓群建筑也把男女衛生間設計在同一層樓。
Most Saudi women have yet to take the liberties their Iranian counterparts do with the veil.
大多數沙特女性還沒能像伊朗女性那樣擅自摘下面紗。
“Parents would object if I didn't cover my face,” says a primary school headmistress who longs to remove it.
一位渴望摘下面紗的小學女校長說道：“如果我不用面紗遮住我的臉，父母會很反對”。
But growing numbers of high-school girls are donning headscarves only, no matter that their elders consider that scandalous.
但是越來越多的高中女生只戴頭巾，盡管長輩會認為只戴頭巾不戴面紗是可恥的行為。
In Jeddah, a more liberal port city, seamstresses design abayas with bright colours and women smoke water-pipes out of doors.
在相對自由地港口城市吉達，不僅女裁縫師會設計顏色鮮艷的長袍，而且女性也會在公共場合抽水煙。
But worryingly, King Abdullah's incremental reforms seem to be stalling and even going to reverse under his successor, King Salman.
但是，令人擔憂的是國王阿卜杜拉在位期間推出的漸進改革在其接任者薩勒曼的領導下似乎要宣告停止甚至是倒退。
His young son, Muhammad, who operates most of the levers of power, says he is anxious to increase Saudi productivity, and to lower birth-rates, by getting women out of the home and into the workplace.
國王的小兒子，手握多項大權的穆罕默德說道他很急切地想要通過促使女性離開家庭走上工作崗位來提高沙特的生產力，降低出生率。
But even so he seems nervous of confronting the religious establishment, on whom the Al Saud rulers depend for legitimacy.
但是盡管如此，在面對宗教倫理時仍心有余悸，畢竟這是沙特王國統治者所依賴的法治基礎。
Many of Abdullah's reformers have been shifted; and a host of hardliners are back.
阿卜杜拉國王旗下的改革派大多已經被調離，一大群強硬派回歸。
The only female minister, in the education ministry, was dismissed soon after Salman took the throne.
在薩勒曼掌權之后，唯一的女部長（服務于教育部）也被解職。
Four women who publicly defied the still unreformed ban on female driving were barred from contesting local elections.
四名女性因公然反抗未經改革的禁止婦女駕駛的法令，而被禁止參與當地選舉。
Shoppers in Jeddah report that the religious police are back, demanding that department stores black out any glimpse of unveiled women on their packaging.
據報道，吉達的消費者稱宗教警察重返，要求購物商場禁止不戴面紗的女性入內。
One executive at an international financial-services firm says that the snoops carried out three spot-checks on her office last year to check for signs of the sexes mingling.
一位國際金融機構的總經理表示這些警察去年在她的辦公室進行了三次是否有與異性交往嫌疑的隨機抽查。
She is once again being forced to enter through side-entrances when visiting clients, while her male counterparts go through the front door;
在與客戶見面時，她再次被迫從側門進入，然而她的男性工作伙伴則可走前門。
and they have to travel to meetings in separate cars.
而且在外出參會時，男女必須乘坐不同的車輛。
In the new, more conservative environment, perhaps the best hope for women is that the country might rediscover its own traditions.
在越來越保守的新環境下，對女性而言最大的希望在于國家能重拾傳統。
A senior official admires footage of the Saudi state's founder, Abdulaziz, holding court in 1930s Mecca, while women riding on horseback bring their wares to market.
一位高級官員很崇尚20世紀30年代在麥加執政的沙特國王阿卜杜勒阿齊茲所推行的女性政策，當時女性可騎在馬背上帶著貨物去市場交易。
At Jeddah's annual festival, the organisers display the colourful costumes women used to wear before the puritans imposed the black abaya of the central desert on the whole country.
在吉達的年度盛會上，組織者會展示五顏六色的服裝，而這些服裝是在清教徒迫使女性身著黑色長袍之前女性曾穿過的服裝。
Most striking of all is the Prophet Muhammad's own requirement that women and men perform the pilgrimage to Mecca together;
最振奮人心的是，先知穆罕默德曾要求男女一同前往麥加朝圣，
and that when women go round the Kaaba, Islam's holiest place, they show their face.
而且當女性繞行克爾白（位于麥加的伊斯蘭教最為神圣的朝圣場所）時可露出其面容。
Saudi Arabia's new rulers might take note.
沙特阿拉伯的新國王可能記錄下了這些。翻譯：李晶晶&周瑋 校對：趙榮
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