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With challenges to the established order growing bolder from a population nearly half of which is under 30, Saudi Arabia has recently made some moves to show moderation. It is sending female athletes to the Olympics for the first time this year. King Abdullah has promised to allow women to run and vote in municipal elections in 2015. He also has tried to rein in the country’s feared morality police.

Expatriates are always at risk of expulsion for the least offence in the kingdom

But Saudi rights advocate Waleed Aboul Khair believes that while such moves give impression that the grip of hardliners has eased, “when you look around, nothing has changed and suppression has not changed.” He is facing trial for “tarnishing the kingdom’s reputation,” mostly by his political activism for women’s rights and other issues.

Warnings or no warnings, he says, “expatriates are always at risk of expulsion for the least offence in the kingdom.”

The prince newly appointed to handle most aspects of law enforcement is known as a strict adherent to religious rules. Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz was governor of the holy city of Mecca before becoming Interior Minister.

Saudi Arabia is wary of the wave of Arab Spring uprisings that has toppled longtime authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and neighbouring Yemen.

It followed a carrot-and-stick strategy to contain unrest by pledging around $120 billion for the kingdom’s lower income groups. It has heavily cracked down on protests, especially in eastern regions dominated by Shiites demanding greater rights, and is steering a middle course between conservatives and reformers among the Sunni majority.