2017年10月04日

ついに女性の車の運転が許されるだろう。 次は男性の付添の廃止だ。

At last Saudi women will be allowed to take the wheel
Next, abolish male guardianship
Sep 30th 2017

ついに女性の車の運転が許されるだろう。
次は男性の付添の廃止だ。



CLERICS in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, have long struggled to justify the kingdom’s decades-old ban on women driving. Often they resorted to strange excuses. Some said women were too stupid to drive. Some worried that male drivers might be dangerously distracted by female ones, or that mobility would make it easier for wives to commit adultery. One suggested that driving damages the ovaries. None was able to cite a verse in the Koran to justify barring women from the wheel, because there isn’t one. On the contrary, reformers note, in the early days of the faith women rode donkeys, unsupervised, without bringing death and destruction. 

resorted:訴える
strange:奇妙な
distracted:気が散る
adultery:不倫
ovaries:卵巣

So the kingdom’s decision on September 26th to lift the ban is as welcome as it is overdue. It will give Saudi women a freedom that others take for granted. It will have economic benefits, too, sparing families the cost of hiring a (male) driver and making it easier for women to get out of the house and into the labour market. It makes Saudi Arabia a bit less dismally exceptional; no other country bans women drivers, unless you count the non-country, Islamic State. Yet it is only a start. 

as it is overdue:行事変更などを】もっと早くすべきで
take for granted:を当たり前[当然]とみなす
dismally:ひどく
non-country:国として認められない国、国らしくない国

The kingdom has long been ruled by a pact between the Al Saud ruling family and Wahhabi clerics who impose their ultra-strict interpretation of Islamic law. In part its puritanism was a response to a double shock in 1979, the Islamic revolution in mainly Shia Iran and the siege of the Great Mosque in Mecca by Sunni extremists. In private, Saudi royals often espouse more liberal views, but they have always feared upsetting their alliance with the clerics. 

puritanism:厳格主義
espouse:採用する・支持する

The crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman (or MBS, as he is called), is a bolder sort of royal. His father, King Salman, has given him control over most things, including the economy and defence policy. MBS, in turn, has drawn up an ambitious reform programme to diversify the country away from oil and wean Saudis off do-little government jobs by energising the private sector. Tapping the kingdom’s greatest underused resource—its women—is an obvious place to begin. More women attend Saudi universities than men, but they make up just 15% of the workforce. Come June, when the ban is officially lifted, they will be able to drive themselves to work. 

bolder:大胆な
wean:を徐々にやめさせる
do-little:ほとんど何もしない

MBS has chipped away at the wilaya (guardianship) system, which puts women under the thumb of male relatives, and curbed the religious police, who used to hound young Saudis for such offences as wearing nail polish. Public concerts, previously banned, started this year. There is even talk of opening cinemas for the first time since the 1980s. Saudis are among the most digitally connected people in the world. MBS is right to sense that they want more freedom. His next steps should be to abolish the wilaya system entirely and curb the influence that Wahhabi clerics exercise over Saudi schools and social policy. Wahhabism, after all, is one of the ideological pillars of global jihadism.

chipped:を少しずつ削り取る
thumb:の言いなりになって
hound:追う
nail polish:マニキュアをしている
jihadism:The word "jihad" is widely used, though often inaccurately, by Western politicians and media.
In Arabic, the word means "effort" or "struggle". In Islam, it could be an individual's internal struggle against base instincts, the struggle to build a good Muslim society, or a war for the faith against unbelievers.

The headstrong prince
The flipside of MBS’s boldness is his propensity to act rashly. He has pursued a cruel war in Yemen and led a diplomatic assault on Qatar, with little to show for either. The lifting of the ban on women drivers seems timed to distract attention from the recent suppression of dissent at home. The dissidents his regime has locked up include reformers and even clerics who argued for lifting the driving ban. Social liberalisation is being pursued by illiberal means, and incoherently. It is hard to envisage MBS succeeding in his ambitious plans by royal decree. He needs to garner more consent. To obtain it, he must learn to tolerate debate and disagreement. Eventually he should move towards some form of democratic consultation. 

headstrong:頑固な
propensity:≪特に好ましくないことへの/…する≫ (生まれつきの)性癖, 傾向
have little to show:大した効果[成果]を挙げていない、これといった成果[結果]を出していない
timed:〈出来事など〉の時間[タイミング]を合わせる 
distract:そらす
dissidents:(特に政府などに)異議を唱える人; 反体制派の人[活動家]
illiberal:頑固な
incoherently:首尾一貫しない
garner:集める
consent:同意
consultation:協議

サルマン皇太子が女性の運転を認めたことは非常に良いことだ。次は女性の付き添いの制度を改革することだ。ただ、イエメンの内戦の関与とか、カタールとの断交を見ていると物事の進め方が自分勝手で、頑固だ。もっといろいろな人と相談し、行動をするべきだ。女性が15%しか社会に出ていないので今回のことはとりあえず、喜ばしいことだ。

木曜日。今日は青葉で石油会がある。ではまた明日。

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海野 恵一
1948年1月14日生

学歴:東京大学経済学部卒業

スウィングバイ株式会社
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アクセンチュア株式会社代表取締役(2001-2002)
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