商務女性在沙特出差 如何尋找變通之道

WOMEN traveling to Saudi Arabia often raise eyebrows there, and Michelle Obama was no exception.

去沙特阿拉伯旅行的西方女人往往會令那裏的人揚起眉毛，米歇爾·奧巴馬(Michelle Obama)也不例外。

When Mrs. Obama recently appeared in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in the company of President Obama with her hair uncovered, she was following well-established diplomatic protocol for prominent foreign women visiting the country, where strict religious laws otherwise require women to have their heads covered.

前不久，在總統奧巴馬的陪伴下，奧巴馬伕人出現在沙特首都利雅得，她沒有戴頭巾，這是遵循了外國著名女性拜訪該國的悠久外交禮節。然而依照沙特阿拉伯嚴格的宗教規定，女性必須戴頭巾。

But a commotion ensued, exacerbated by a faked YouTube video that suggested that Saudi state television had blurred out images of Mrs. Obama and her uncovered head. The video had been doctored, and not by Saudi television. But a furor still is playing out on Twitter over Mrs. Obama and the absent head scarf.

但是，這引發了一場騷動，YouTube上的一個僞造視頻更加劇了這場騷動。該視頻顯示，沙特阿拉伯國家電視臺把奧巴馬伕人和她未戴頭巾的頭部作了模糊處理。這段視頻是篡改過的，並非來自沙特阿拉伯國家電視臺。但是Twitter上仍出現了關於奧巴馬伕人未戴頭巾的激烈爭論。

That makes for an interesting backdrop, as more women are traveling to Saudi Arabia on business these days. And they are encountering the laws that limit the social and physical mobility of women in the kingdom, where it is illegal for a woman to drive a car.

這是一個有趣的背景，因爲如今越來越多的女人會去沙特出差。她們會遇到這個王國限制女性社會和身體流動性的各種法律。在那裏，女人開車是違法的。

In 2015, a theme being widely applied to the hajj pilgrimage that brings millions of Muslims to Saudi holy sites each year is “The Year of Development,” to highlight significant economic and social changes in the kingdom. In a country whose economy is being battered by the drop in world oil prices, there is growing emphasis on improving infrastructure and business development, including the building of new hotels. Among many global hotel companies with new projects in Saudi Arabia are Marriott, Carlson Rezidor and InterContinental, which is developing its Staybridge Suites brand in Jeddah.

每年，成百上千萬穆斯林前往沙特聖地麥加朝聖。2015年朝聖的一個主題是“發展之年”，突顯這個王國的經濟和社會變革。該國經濟正因全球油價下跌而遭受打擊，所以越來越重視改善基礎設施，促進商業發展，包括建新酒店。很多全球酒店集團正在沙特建新酒店，包括萬豪(Marriott)、卡爾森瑞德酒店(Carlson Rezidor)和洲際酒店(InterContinental)。洲際酒店正在吉達擴張自己的駐橋套房(Staybridge Suites)品牌。

But as this development expands, can businesswomen from abroad work effectively within a culture where, for example, a Saudi woman was arrested in December for attending a soccer match? Yes — but it requires planning and agility, says Nancy J. Ruddy, a co-founder of CetraRuddy, an architectural firm in New York that has been working in Saudi Arabia on the design for a large business hotel project in Jeddah. The five-star Galleria hotel and retail center is scheduled to open late this year.

但是在這些發展的同時，國外的商務女性能在這種文化中有效率地進行工作嗎？去年12月，一名沙特女子因去現場觀看足球賽而被捕。紐約建築公司CetraRuddy的聯合創始人南希·J·拉迪(Nancy J. Ruddy)說，女人能夠在這裏有效率地工作，不過需要計劃和機智。該公司正在吉達設計一個大型商務酒店項目。這個五星級加列里亞飯店(Galleria)和零售中心計劃今年年底開業。

We’re all familiar with the basic drill in Saudi society, where even restaurants are segregated, with women and children seated in special sections away from men. But I asked Ms. Ruddy whether there are lesser-known hurdles in doing business while female in Saudi Arabia.

我們都知道沙特社會的一些基本習俗，在那裏甚至連餐館都設立隔離區，女人和孩子被安置在特殊區域，與男人隔開。但是我問拉迪，女性在沙特做生意有沒有什麼不太爲人所知的障礙。

“Any country that I go to, I really study the customs and I get advice from people who have been there, so the obvious things about having to wear these robes, these abayas, about being covered, everybody knows about those things,” she said. “But there are certain things we all assume are basic in our global world, even if it is a country like Saudi Arabia, such as the availability of bathrooms.”

“不管去哪個國家，我都會認真研究那裏的習俗，詢問去過那裏的人的建議。很顯然，你必須穿長袍，蓋住頭，誰都知道這些，”她說，“但是有些東西我們以爲全世界都有，甚至在沙特這樣的國家也應該有，可實際上那裏沒有，比如衛生間。”

Many of her business meetings with the development company, an arm of the Saudi royal family, took place in a modern 23-story office building, she said.

她說，她和開發公司的很多商務會議都是在一個23層的現代寫字樓裏進行的。那是沙特皇室的公司。

“But there was no ladies’ room, which was totally shocking to me,” she said. “During my first trip there, if I needed to use the bathroom, I would have to say that I need to go back to my hotel, and I would have to be walked back to the hotel by a man, because you’re not allowed as a woman to walk around unaccompanied on the streets. And because there are almost no women in the work force in Saudi Arabia, there are no ladies’ rooms in office buildings.”

“但是那裏沒有女衛生間，這讓我極爲震驚，”她說，“我第一次去那兒時，如果我需要去衛生間，我只能說我需要回酒店，然後必須有一個男人送我回酒店，因爲在沙特，沒有男人陪伴，女人不能獨自在街上走動。因爲沙特女人幾乎都不工作，所以寫字樓裏沒有女衛生間。”

So Ms. Ruddy resorted to a kind of bathroom diplomacy during her frequent work sessions there. “All of the male executives had private bathrooms, so I asked if it was possible for one of those bathrooms to be put out of commission so I could use it, so I wouldn’t have to ask some man to take me on a 15-minute walk back to my hotel.”

所以，在那裏頻繁工作期間，拉迪想出了一種衛生間外交策略。“所有男性高管都有私人衛生間，所以我詢問是否有可能留出一個衛生間給我用，這樣我就不用讓某個男人陪我走15分鐘回酒店了。”

Voilà! Compromise was achieved and a little sign on a door solved a big problem.

好了！他們讓步了，在門上掛一個小牌子就解決了一個大問題。

By and large, as more women travel on business in Saudi Arabia, more of them are finding ways to work around the system, even as some social pressure builds within the country from Saudi women, who make up 20 percent of the country’s work force, up from 16 percent a decade ago. That is still among the lowest female work force percentages of any country, according to data from the World Bank.

總的來說，隨着更多女人到沙特出差，她們中的更多人在尋找變通方法，與此同時，沙特婦女也在國內施加了一些社會壓力。如今女性佔沙特勞動力的20%，比十年前的16%有所增長。根據世界銀行的數據，它仍是世界上女性勞動者比例最低的國家之一。

“With so many U.S.- and global-based businesses in Saudi Arabia, travel to the country is only going to expand,” said Carol Margolis, the publisher of Smart Women Travelers. “Saudi women keep pushing for change and, as a result, travel into their country by Western women will become easier.”

“隨着這麼多美國和國際性公司進駐沙特，到這個國家旅行的人只會越來越多，”《聰明的女性旅行者》(Smart Women Travelers)的作者卡羅爾·馬戈利斯(Carol Margolis)說，“沙特婦女在不斷推進改革，所以西方女性去她們國家旅行會變得更容易。”

Finding ways to navigate around customs that might seem insurmountable at first “has been very interesting,” said Ms. Ruddy, who also has developed projects in India.

拉迪說，在最初看來似乎難以逾越的習俗中尋找變通辦法“變得非常有趣”。她也在印度開發項目。

“In Saudi Arabia, it’s clear they have a great admiration for expertise, so the rules were changed a bit when they saw that I was bringing expertise to the table, which is of course why they hired me in the first place,” she said. “After a while, some of the men would even call me by name and make direct eye contact.”

“在沙特阿拉伯，他們顯然十分欽佩專業知識，所以當他們看到我能帶來專業知識時，規矩就有所鬆動，當然他們起初僱傭我也是爲了我的專業知識，”她說，“經過一段時間，其中一些男人甚至開始直呼我的名字，跟我有直接的目光接觸。”

Small victories, of course, in a world where the ability to gracefully work around traditions is valued because, as every business traveler contemplating a trip to an unknown culture knows, as a general rule, when you have to go, you have to go.

當然，這些都是小小的勝利。在當今世界，在尊重傳統的同時，尋找變通方法以便得體工作的能力顯得越來越重要，因爲每個商務旅行者在考慮前往一個陌生文化時，都知道這樣的一般原則——如果必須去，那就別無選擇。