Love in Saudi Arabia

The New York Times has recently published some articles and blog entries on love, life, and the pursuit of happiness for young people in Saudi Arabia. The conservative atmosphere prevents almost all contact between the sexes, leading (as always with young adults) to some creative work-arounds. Saudi guys chase girls around, trying to pass off their phone numbers, for instance as is discussed here. The girls' side of things is here. The boys' is here.

Young men, especially, chafe under these restrictions, not only because they want to chase girls, but also because there's not a whole lot else for them to do. There are few jobs that Saudi teens can do and there are few other outlets. They are barred from many malls as single males, there aren't any movie theaters, and precious few sports clubs. Beside chasing girls around and "numbering" them, many guys head out to the highways and streets to "drift" (tefheet in Arabic). This is a crazy past-time in which they zoom around in small Eastern cars, skidding and sliding on the pavement. This usually happens at night. During the daytime you can see the skid marks on prime sections of road and parking lots.

While many might think that the young men who grew up longing for more opportunities might change things later on down the line, a lot of men, once they have families, want to keep hoodlums like they used to be away from their girls. I've talked to more than one Saudi dad who loved the chance to get away and enjoy himself outside the Kingdom, for example, but were not interested in taking their daughters into such an environment. So, are changes in the offing or will things stay the same for some time?

For less conservative Gulf countries, these problems aren't as sharp, but the restrictions and ambitions are still clashing.