29/03/2011

Available for over a year

JOHN MURPHY presents From Our Own Correspondent - the programme bringing you insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. In today's programme, SUE LLOYD ROBERTS hears from women (and men) who both support and oppose the status quo in Saudi Arabia when it comes to the segregation of the sexes in the Kingdom. There have been small anti-government protests in the east of the country but, unlike other states in the region, Saudi Arabia has remained relatively quiet. King Abdullah recently announced a lavish package of pay rises, subsidies and gifts for his people. But there are still calls for reform. Just kilometres away from Saudi Arabia, the ruling family of Bahrain have been facing protests from their own people. As ANDREW BOLTON reflects, the tension between the island's Sunni rulers and their Shia-majority subjects is not new. And ever since it was first built, the causeway linking it to the Arabian mainland has been closely tied to the Gulf's power struggles.