CUSTOMERS arrive at a 24-hour supermarket in the centre of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, shortly before midnight, but little shopping takes place. Small groups of young men and women cruise the aisles eyeing each other. Interest in items on the shelves is cursory at best. In the car park outside they continue their flirtation until the police show up. Mingling between the sexes is discouraged in Saudi Arabia yet impossible to ban. “We chat online, but if we want to meet face-to-face we come here,” says a man in his early 20s.
The kingdom’s larger cities are brimming with social friction and furtive action of this kind. Much of it is not explicitly political, but it hints at the strength of discontent bubbling below the surface. Growing wealth has raised the aspirations and political awareness of the country’s 25m people. Some rail against corruption, echoing the complaints of demonstrators in Egypt and Tunisia, whereas others strain at social rules imposed half a century ago when the country was rural and poor.
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