Saudi's 'mutawa' faces changing times

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: In deeply conservative Saudi Arabia the religious police once elicited terror, chasing men and women out of malls to pray and berating anyone seen mingling with the opposite sex.

But the stick-wielding guardians of public morality have watched gloomily as in recent years their country eased some social restrictions — especially for women — and grumble bitterly at the changing times.