Even the Saudis—or rather, the small number of men who actually rule their troubled country—are giving ground in the struggle for women's rights. For sure, the recommendations (1)_____ this week to Crown Prince Abdullah at the end of an (2)_____ round of 'national dialogue' concentrating on the role of women were fairly tame. in the reformers-versus-reactionaries (3)_____ test of whether women should, be allowed to drive cars (at present they cannot do so in the kingdom, nor can they travel unaccompanied, by whatever (4)_____ of motion), the king was merely asked to' (5)_____ a body to study a public-transport system for women to facilitate mobility'. (6)_____ mention, of course, of the right to vote—but then that has been (7)_____ to men too, though local elections, on an apparently universal franchise, are supposed to be held in October. In sum, it is a tortoise's progress. But the very fact of the debate happening at all is (8)_____ —and hopeful. It is not just in Saudi Arabia that more rights for women are being demanded (9)_____ across the whole of the Arab and Muslim world. The pushy Americans have made women's rights part of their appeal for greater democracy in (10)_____ they now officially call the 'broader Middle East', to include non-Arab Muslim countries such as Iran, Turkey and even Afghanistan. Many Arabs have cautioned the Americans against seeking to (11)_____ their own values on societies with such different traditions and (12)_____. Many leading Muslims have (13)_____ the culturally imperious Americans of seeking to (14)_____ Islam. The (15)_____ for more democracy in the Muslim world issued by leaders of the eight biggest industrial countries was watered down for fear of giving (16)_____. Yet, despite the Arabs' prickliness, the Americans have helped pep up a debate that is now bubbling fiercely in the Arab world, even (17)_____ many Arab leaders, none of whom is directly elected by the people, are understandably (18)_____ of reforms that could lead to their own toppling. Never before have women's rights in the Arab world been so (19)_____ debated. That (20)_____ is cause to rejoice.