【单选题】

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 toCrown PrinceAbdullah 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 SaudiArabia that more rights for women are being demanded (9) across the whole of theArab and Muslim worlD、 The pushyAmericans have made women’s rights part of their appeal for greater democracy in (10) they now officially call the "broader MiddleEast", to include non-Arab Muslim countries such as Iran, Turkey and evenAfghanistan. ManyArabs have cautioned theAmericans against seeking to (11) their own values on societies with such different traditions and (12) . Many leading Muslims have (13) the culturally imperiousAmericans 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 theArabs’ prickliness, theAmericans have helped pep up a debate that is now bubbling fiercely in theArab world, even (17) manyArab 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 theArab world been so (19) debateD、That (20) is cause to rejoice.
A．offence
B．collapse
C．disaster
D．passivism