When Saudi Arabia's top religious authority ruled this month that Islam forbids men and women to mix in public, he reset the boundaries for reformists pushing for women's rights in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
No one, not even the royal family, which derives legitimacy from the clerical establishment, could challenge his verdict.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh's ruling opened a debate on whether Saudi Arabia's absolute monarchy is capable of carrying out reforms and moving the country into the modern age with a powerful clerical establishment stuck in an 18th century mind-set.
"The mixing between men and women is totally forbidden under sharia (Islamic law) and highly punishable. It is...the root of every evil and catastrophe," said the mufti, a descendant of Mohammed Abdel Wahhab, the religious leader who with the ruling House of Saud founded Saudi Arabia.
The ruling came after Saudi Arabia's leading businesswoman Lubna Olaya appealed at an economic forum in Jeddah for gender equality in Saudi Arabia. Pictures of her veil slipping from her head onto her shoulders -- powerful symbolism which echoed her words -- enraged the mufti who said this violated Islamic teaching.
Although men and women at the meeting were segregated by a screen, women were able to cross into the men's section and mingle, much to the fury of conservatives.
Greater rights for Saudi women, who are banned from driving or travelling without a male guardian, is only one of the demands by liberals who also want fair distribution of wealth, elections, human rights and transparency.
Women are strictly separated from men in all areas of Saudi life -- school, university, work, in hospitals and public buildings. In restaurants they have their own sections and even amusement centres and parks have special days for men and others for women.
"The mind-set of the clerical establishment is pre-historic, hindering all kinds of reform," said academic Raed Qusti.
"The ultra conservatives in this country have their hands on everything and they are fighting reform with all the power they have. To them any change is a threat, be it social, political or economic," he added.
The power of the clergy derives from the alliance between the al-Saud dynasty and Sheikh Mohammed Abdel Wahhab, the 18th century founder of Wahhabism -- the country's only permitted form of Islam.
Saudi Arabia's austere clerics issue edits on a range of topics and influence what is said in mosques, taught in schools and how Islamic law is implemented.
COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP
"Saudi Arabia is a country founded on religion. It is a tool for anyone who is controlling Saudi Arabia, without it it would be fragmented into tribal society," said Islamist lawyer Mohsen Awaji, jailed for four years in 1994 for demanding reforms.
Analysts say the House of Saud has for years turned a blind eye to Wahhabi teachings which are now blamed for breeding militancy, but cannot repudiate them without harming its own legitimacy.
"The men of religion and politics traded many benefits over the years. The rulers gave the clergy influence to implement its ideology and the clergy protected them with edicts (supporting their rule)," said Saudi analyst Khaled al-Fadely.
"The religious leaders helped for a long time in safeguarding thrones, whether in Saudi or elsewhere," he added.
Most citizens of Saudi Arabia have been brought up under this strict code of religious conformity which is intolerant of other forms of Islam and other faiths.
Some analysts and academics say the country was not always so restrictive, pointing to a period of liberalism in the 1960s when Saudi Arabia had a Shura (advisory) council, municipal elections and women could work and mix with men.
They attribute the change to the 1979 takeover of the Grand mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, by a group of Sunni fanatics who opposed modernisation in the birthplace of Islam.
A disconcerted royal family empowered the clergy to bolster the validity of its rule; the House of Saud bases its legitimacy on safeguarding the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST PLEASURE
Wahhabi clerics then waged a campaign against art and other pleasures of life. Music was banned from public places and the few cinemas closed. Religion hijacked most of the school curriculum with students having less time for other topics.
No one expects sudden change in a country where religious diktat intervenes in every detail of life. But some officials now acknowledge that religious dogma, which instills bigotry and hatred of the West, has helped create a militancy which led to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Reformists say those attacks, carried out by mainly Saudi followers of Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and the overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, has put Saudi Arabia and its religious establishment under pressure to reform.
The royal family, not likely to change the order on its own, is now being pressed by its ally Washington to take bold steps to check the rising influence of al Qaeda and prevent the world's leading oil exporter from sliding into turmoil.
"Our country is being forced to reform. If it is left for their choice they would not move," Awaji said.
No significant changes in the kingdom, from the introduction of telephones and television to the start of education for girls have ever gone ahead without fierce resistance from the clerics.
This time, reformers say, the royal family has to decide whether it wants to face that challenge.
"Since 1990 we've been saying the same thing -- that reform is essential but that we are not ready. When are we going to be ready then?" asked Qusti.
Crown Prince Abdullah has pledged to press ahead with reform but said change would be gradual and in harmony with Islam. "This country is either Muslim or nothing at all," he said.
Many analysts doubt that determination at the top will be enough this time. Some believe the monarchy could exert pressure on the clerics by curtailing their lucrative benefits.
The government, however, remains cautious about the pace of reform, anxious to minimise any backlash.
As one official told Reuters: "Change does not come in a day or a night. We have to start and keep the momentum and we have to prepare the mind-set of people for change to accept it. You cannot ram reform down their throats just like that."
"It was the mistake of the government to allow them (the clerics) to expand their influence," said al-Fadely. "The state gave them power and the magic turned against the magician."