BBC – NEWSNIGHT: Before I flew to the Saudi capital Riyadh to make a film about the position of women in the kingdom, I met a Saudi woman studying in the UK who told me, "Saudi Arabia is the biggest women's prison in the world".
Can I quote you? I asked. "You can quote me," she said, "but you can't name me."
I heard that same sentiment and request to remain anonymous repeated during my 10-day stay in the kingdom.
Few dare criticise the country openly, though the restrictions on women are scarcely believable in the 21st Century. A woman can't drive and she is not allowed to work or travel without the permission of her male guardian, father or husband.
Customs such as arranged marriages, under-age marriage and polygamy still prevail.
Workplace revolution
The on-going battles to bring about change tend to be small ones.
Twenty-year-old Dina, with her heavily kohl-rimmed eyes and diamante cuffs on her abaya (the burka of Saudi Arabia), is a revolutionary in the workplace. She sits in the Jeddah studio at Radio Mix FM with a man.
Up until a few years ago, men and women were not allowed to work in the same room and broadcast journalism has so far proved one of the very few exceptions.
But, beyond that, Dina's message is hardly revolutionary. She acts as a kind of agony aunt for the station's young audience.
A 17-year-old girl sends in an e-mail complaining of boredom. Dina tells her to take up a hobby like painting or photography which, because an unaccompanied girl is not allowed to leave the house, she will have to do at home.
If an 18-year-old wrote in asking how to meet a member of the opposite sex, Dina says she would respond by saying, "It is not possible and [you] must accept it - it is our culture".
At the end of her shift, her boss accompanies her down on to the street and waits until her brother's car pulls up to collect her.
"You present your own radio show and yet you can't drive?" I asked. "It's normal," she said, and closed the car door.
She has to watch what she says. The radio station receives angry calls from the country's religious conservatives who are appalled that women like her are allowed to sit in the same room as an unrelated man.
Any false step or unguarded remark could see the station closed. (+ video) » | Sue Lloyd-Roberts, BBC Newsnight | Monday, March 28, 2011
