Growing up: in a strict Islamic society like Saudi Arabia, segregation of the sexes is almost total. Part 1: the boys.

AuthorSlackman, Michael
PositionINTERNATIONAL

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Nader al-Mutairi's cell phone beeps, signaling a text message. The phone flashes the words "My Love" over two interlocked red hearts. The message is from his 17-year-old fiancee, Sarah, who is also his cousin. But according to Saudi tradition, Nader, 22, and Sarah are not allowed to see one another or spend time together until their wedding.

"I have a connection," Nader says, as he reads the message, explaining how Sarah manages to communicate with him in a country where any contact between unmarried men and women--even a phone call--is forbidden.

His "connection" is his 20-year-old cousin, Enad, who has secretly slipped his sister, Sarah, a cell phone that Nader bought for her. These conversations are taboo and could cause problems between the two families.

In the West, young people often challenge authority. But in Saudi Arabia, most young people seem to accept the religious and cultural demands of the Muslim world's most conservative society. They may chafe against the rules and try to evade them at times, but they generally believe in them and say they intend to continue them with their own children.

Young men like Nader and Enad are taught that they are the guardians of the family's reputation, expected to shield their female relatives from shame, and avoid dishonoring their families by their own behavior.

"One of the most important Arab traditions is honor," Enad says. "If I call someone and a girl answers, I have to apologize. It's a huge deal. It is a violation of the house."

Enad and Nader are more than cousins; they are lifelong friends and confidants, as is often the case in Sandi Arabia, where families tend to be large and insular. (Both men have parents who are married to cousins.) Each has the requisite mustache and goatee, and they usually wear the traditional Saudi robe known as a thobe.

They are part of an enormous group of Saudi youth: 60 percent of the population is under 25 years old (compared with about 30 percent in the U.S.). They are average young Saudis, not wealthy, not poor. They live in the capital, Riyadh, a city of 5 million that gleams with oil wealth and has roads clogged with S.U.V.'s. But it has very little entertainment for young men--no movie theaters and few sports facilities. If they're single, they can't even go into malls where women shop.

RELIGIOUS POLICE

Saudi Arabia is one of the most powerful nations in the Middle East and an important U.S. ally in the region. Its influence stems largely from its oil wealth--Saudi Arabia has more than 25 percent of the world's known oil reserves--and its position as the birthplace of Islam and the guardian of its two most sacred sites, in Mecca and Medina.

A strict fundamentalist interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism governs all aspects of life in Saudi Arabia, with the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad effectively serving as a...

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