When Sofana Dahlan wanted to study law, she had to go to Egypt to do it. The subject wasn’t offered to women at universities in her native Saudi Arabia.

Nearly 20 years later, she is an accomplished lawyer and entrepreneur who has helped launch the businesses of numerous artists, designers and other creative types.

Her career is evidence of a slow but seismic shift in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, which has long relegated women to the status of legal minors.

Although women still need the permission of a male relative to attend university, get married or travel abroad, some are taking on new roles in the workplace — and in the process, gaining a measure of financial independence.

Women cloaked in black, some with only their eyes showing through face veils, are working in shops and cafes, offices and boardrooms, and even some factory assembly lines.