サウジアラビア、飲食店の男女別の入り口を廃止

【リヤドＡＦＰ＝時事】サウジアラビアではこれまで、レストランやカフェに男女別の入り口を設けることが義務付けられていたが、この規定が廃止された。政府関係者らが明らかにした。超保守的なイスラム教国である同国は、社会の規制緩和を進めている。（写真はサウジアラビア首都リヤドのファストフード店に設置された、男女を分けるついたて。資料写真）
　かつて権力を持っていた宗教警察が、公共の場での男女隔離を徹底してきた同国の飲食店は長きにわたり、独身男性用の入り口と、女性と家族用の入り口の２つを設けなくてはならなかった。
　地方自治体を管轄する当局は８日、「独身男性用の入り口と、家族連れ用の別の入り口」を設けるという規定を含め、飲食店に関する幾つかの要件を撤廃するとツイッターで発表した。
　ただ、店内の座席に関する要件も同時に撤廃されるかどうかは明言されていない。
　飲食店内には現在、女性連れの「家族」エリアと、男性用の「独身」エリアが設けられている。とはいえ同国内で大幅な規制緩和が進む中、近年多くの店ではひそかにこの区分が取り払われてきている。
　今回の動きはサウジの若者に歓迎される一方、厳格な保守派はソーシャルメディア上でこれを批判。あるツイッターユーザーは「シャリア（イスラム法）に反する」とコメントした。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/12/10-09:59）

Restaurants and cafes in Saudi Arabia are no longer required to have gender-segregated entrances, officials said, in a further easing of social restrictions in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom.
Eateries have long required one entrance for single men and another for women and families, in a country where the once-powerful religious police zealously enforced sex segregation in public places for decades.
The ministry of municipalities and rural affairs said on Twitter Sunday it was eliminating several requirements for restaurants, including the need for an entrance for bachelors and a separate entrance for families.
It was unclear whether a restriction on seating inside restaurants will also be removed.
Restaurants are currently segregated into a family section for those accompanied by women and a singles area for men, though many have quietly taken down the barriers in recent years amid the kingdom's sweeping liberalisation drive.
The latest reform was hailed by young Saudis but dismissed by arch-conservatives on social media, with one Twitter user saying it went against sharia, or Islamic law.
Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has sought to project a moderate, business-friendly image of his austere kingdom as he seeks to boost investment.
Prince Mohammed has clipped the powers of hardline clerics as he pursues a modernisation drive that has allowed mixed-gender music concerts and ended decades-long bans on cinemas and women drivers.
Until three years ago, the religious police elicited widespread fear in the kingdom, chasing men and women out of malls to pray and berating anyone seen mingling with the opposite sex.
The hardline enforcers of public morality, whose powers began waning even before Prince Mohammed rose to power, are now largely out of sight.
But the reforms have been accompanied by a crackdown on activists, including women urging faster reform, some of whom have accused interrogators of sexual harassment and torture. Saudi prosecutors deny the accusations.