经济学人下载:沙特阿拉伯的女人们(下)

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.
在利雅得和吉达，尽管不是像卡提夫那样的自由城市，那些一直以来禁止新任女性议员和男性一同坐在会议室里的传教士，他们也一直反对女性参与到竞选当中。

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.
让阿訇惊愕的是，在利雅得一个较为落后地区，（戴面纱的）女性已在宜家家居（瑞典的家具专营店）从事收银员的工作，而且男女在混合走道中一同排队结账。

At the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology outside Jeddah, male and female students attend the same lectures and mingle freely.
在地处吉达旁的阿卜杜拉国王科技大学里，男女同学可一起参加同一门课的学习并且自由地往来。

Architects of new office blocks locate male and female toilets on the same floor.
新办公楼群建筑也把男女卫生间设计在同一层楼。

Most Saudi women have yet to take the liberties their Iranian counterparts do with the veil.
大多数沙特女性还没能像伊朗女性那样擅自摘下面纱。

“Parents would object if I didn't cover my face,” says a primary school headmistress who longs to remove it.
一位渴望摘下面纱的小学女校长说道：“如果我不用面纱遮住我的脸，父母会很反对”。

But growing numbers of high-school girls are donning headscarves only, no matter that their elders consider that scandalous.
但是越来越多的高中女生只戴头巾，尽管长辈会认为只戴头巾不戴面纱是可耻的行为。

In Jeddah, a more liberal port city, seamstresses design abayas with bright colours and women smoke water-pipes out of doors.
在相对自由地港口城市吉达，不仅女裁缝师会设计颜色鲜艳的长袍，而且女性也会在公共场合抽水烟。

But worryingly, King Abdullah's incremental reforms seem to be stalling and even going to reverse under his successor, King Salman.
但是，令人担忧的是国王阿卜杜拉在位期间推出的渐进改革在其接任者萨勒曼的领导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.
国王的小儿子，手握多项大权的穆罕默德说道他很急切地想要通过促使女性离开家庭走上工作岗位来提高沙特的生产力，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.
但是尽管如此，在面对宗教伦理时仍心有余悸，毕竟这是沙特王国统治者所依赖的法治基础。

Many of Abdullah's reformers have been shifted; and a host of hardliners are back.
阿卜杜拉国王旗下的改革派大多已经被调离，一大群强硬派回归。

The only female minister, in the education ministry, was dismissed soon after Salman took the throne.
在萨勒曼掌权之后，唯一的女部长（服务于教育部）也被解职。

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经改革的禁止妇女驾驶的法令，而被禁止参与当地选举。

Shoppers in Jeddah report that the religious police are back, demanding that department stores black out any glimpse of unveiled women on their packaging.
据报道，吉达的消费者称宗教警察重返，要求购物商场禁止不戴面纱的女性入内。

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.
一位国际金融机构的总经理表示这些警察去年在她的办公室进行了三次是否有与异性交往嫌疑的随机抽查。

She is once again being forced to enter through side-entrances when visiting clients, while her male counterparts go through the front door;
在与客户见面时，她再次被迫从侧门进入，然而她的男性工作伙伴则可走前门。

and they have to travel to meetings in separate cars.
而且在外出参会时，男女必须乘坐不同的车辆。

In the new, more conservative environment, perhaps the best hope for women is that the country might rediscover its own traditions.
在越来越保守的新环境下，对女性而言最大的希望在于国家能重拾传统。

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.
一位高级官员很崇尚20世纪30年代在麦加执政的沙特国王阿卜杜勒阿齐兹所推行的女性政策，当时女性可骑在马背上带着货物去市场交易。

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.
在吉达的年度盛会上，组织者会展示五颜六色的服装，而这些服装是在清教徒迫使女性身着黑色长袍之前女性曾穿过的服装。

Most striking of all is the Prophet Muhammad's own requirement that women and men perform the pilgrimage to Mecca together;
最振奋人心的是，先知穆罕默德曾要求男女一同前往麦加朝圣，

and that when women go round the Kaaba, Islam's holiest place, they show their face.
而且当女性绕行克尔白（位于麦加的伊斯兰教最为神圣的朝圣场所）时可露出其面容。

Saudi Arabia's new rulers might take note.
沙特阿拉伯的新国王可能记录下了这些。