喫煙で自由を「まっとう」、公共の場でたばこを吸う女性たち　サウジ

【リヤドＡＦＰ＝時事】サウジアラビアの首都リヤドにある高級カフェで、椅子に腰掛けた27歳のリマさん（仮名）は注意深く周囲を見渡し、顔見知りがいないことを確認すると、電子たばこを吸い、煙を吐き出した。（写真はサウジアラビア・リヤドのカフェでたばこを吸うナジラさん）
　リヤドの民間企業で勤務するリマさんはＡＦＰに対し、「公共の場でたばこを吸うことは、新たに勝ち取った自由の行使の一部だと感じる」と話す。
　２０世紀初頭における欧米のフェミニスト同様、サウジでも社会変化の時代に、解放の象徴としてたばこやシーシャ（水たばこ）、電子たばこを吸う女性たちがいる。
　女性が公共の場でたばこを吸う光景は最近、より頻繁に見かけるようになっているが、大々的な改革が導入される前の超保守的なサウジでは想像もできなかったものだ。
　サウジの事実上の指導者で、野心的なムハンマド・ビン・サルマン皇太子は、穏健かつビジネス志向の印象を与えるべく、数々の経済的・社会的な新制度を打ち出している。
　今や女性らは、車を運転したり、公的スポーツイベントやコンサートを観覧したり、男性後見人の許可なく旅券（パスポート）を取得することが認められている。
　２年前から喫煙を始めたリマさんは、たばこの悪影響に関する懸念は気にしていないが、家族に自身の喫煙を知られることを心配している。ただ、家族と決着をつける用意もあるという。
　「家族に対して、これは私個人の自由に関することだと主張するつもりはない。なぜなら、男性のように女性が自由にたばこを吸うことなど理解できないだろうから」
　２６歳のナジラさん（仮名）は、社会の急変にもかかわらず、ダブルスタンダードがまだ存在し、女性が喫煙することは「恥ずべき、不名誉なこと」だと見なされていると話す。
　複数のテーブルを男性喫煙者たちが囲む中、唯一の女性であるナジラさんは、「社会を変え」、時折受ける下劣な視線を無視していくと語った。
　ナジラさんは「家族が私を喫煙者として受け入れてくれた時に、私の権利は完全に尊重されることになるだろう」と話し、友人が両親に喫煙していることがばれ、依存症のクリニックへと送られてしまったことを回想した。
　ナジラさんは１０代の頃に喫煙を始めたが、サウジの英字紙アラブ・ニューズが報じたアブドルアジズ国王大学医学部による２０１５年の調査によると、サウジではナジラさんのように女子高生の最大６５％が内緒で喫煙しているという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/02/18-12:39）

Rima settles in a chair at an upscale Riyadh cafe, looks around carefully, and seeing no one she recognises, drags on her electronic cigarette and exhales a cloud of smoke.
I feel that smoking in public is a part of exercising my newly won freedoms. I am happy that now that I can choose, the 27-year-old Saudi who works for a private company in the capital told AFP.
Like Western feminists of the early 20th century, in an era of social change in Saudi Arabia some women are embracing cigarettes, shisha pipes or vaping as a symbol of emancipation.
The sight of women smoking in public has become much more common in recent months, an unthinkable prospect before the introduction of sweeping reforms in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
The kingdom's ambitious de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has rolled out an array of economic and social innovations to project a moderate, business-friendly image.
Women are now allowed to drive, attend public sporting events and concerts, and obtain passports without the approval of a male guardian.
Rima, who started smoking two years ago, dismisses concerns about the harmful effects of tobacco, but is worried her family will find out.
She says she is prepared for a showdown.
I won't tell them that this is about my personality liberty, because they won't understand that women are free to smoke like men, said Rima, dressed in a traditional black abaya with gold embroidery matching the hijab that covered her hair.
Najla, 26, who like Rima asked to use a pseudonym, said that despite the rapid social changes, double standards still existed, and that it was still considered a scandal and disgrace if women smoked.
The only woman lighting up amid several tables of male smokers, she said she intended to challenge society and ignore the occasional dirty looks.
My rights will be fully respected when my family accepts me as a smoker, she said, recalling that a friend was sent to an addiction clinic when her parents found out about her smoking.
Najla started smoking while still a school student, and like her, up to 65 percent of female Saudi high schoolers light up secretly, according to a 2015 study by the medical faculty at King Abdulaziz University cited by Arab News.
- 'Everything is allowed' -
Despite the limitations, in a country where until just a few years ago religious police would chase and hit women for infractions like wearing nail polish or allowing a strand of hair to escape from their hijab, the changes have been head-spinning.
Most of our women clients order shisha. It's something that was totally unimaginable just three months ago, a Lebanese waiter told AFP at an upscale cafe in north Riyadh.
Heba, a 36-year-old longtime smoker who sat at a table nearby, described growing up in a closed country where everything was forbidden to women.
I never imagined I would be able to smoke shisha in public next to men, she told AFP.
Now, everything is allowed. Women venture out without hijab, without abaya and they even smoke publicly.
But even as the kingdom has introduced reforms, it has attracted condemnation for a heavy-handed crackdown on dissidents including intellectuals, clerics and female activists.
In 2018, authorities arrested at least a dozen women activists just before the historic lifting of the decades-long ban on female motorists.
Many of the detained have accused interrogators of sexual harassment and torture. Saudi authorities reject the accusations.
There is no doubt that at the persona level there is more freedom, said Walid al-Hathloul, whose sister Loujain is on trial over allegations of having contacts with foreign media and diplomats.
But the reforms in favour of women are part of a public relations campaign to improve the kingdom's human rights record, he told AFP.
The arrest and demonisation of women activists is proof of this -- it's designed so that the reforms will not be credited to the activists, he told AFP.