Growing up Saudi: young people in Saudi Arabia are increasingly questioning authority and rocking the foundations of this very conservative society.

• Author: House, Karen Elliott
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

Friday mornings are the quietest time in Saudi Arabia. It's the day of rest and religious observance for Muslims, so shops and schools are closed, the streets are empty of cars, and most people go back to bed after dawn prayers. At midday, men stream into one of the kingdom's 70,000 mosques to pray and hear the weekly sermon. For men, attendance is required; for women, it's discouraged. They mostly stay home and watch the sermons on TV.

The morning may belong to God, but evening along Thalia Street in Riyadh, the capital, belongs to rebellious youth. Thalia Street has three lanes of traffic in each direction and is lined with expensive shops and restaurants.

Young men lounge against souped-up cars parked along the curb as others alternately gun their engines and hit the brakes, causing their cars to rock in the bumper-to-bumper traffic. Boys on four-wheel bikes weave among the cars and then up onto the median. Loud rap music-in English--blasts from every bike. Most of the young men are dressed in low-slung jeans and T-shirts. Riyadh police watch but do nothing. The religious police, who enforce social rules, are nowhere to be seen. Neither are any young women, who are not allowed to drive--or go out in public without a chaperone.

The scenes of jaded youth on Thalia Street exemplify the tensions tearing at Saudi society, as tradition is challenged by modernity. The young, overwhelmingly Internet-savvy, are well aware of the lifestyles of Western youth, but they have almost no leisure options open to them. Movie theaters are banned. Dating is forbidden. Public soccer fields are few. Concerts are outlawed. Even listening to music is forbidden by conservative religious sheikhs, though this is widely ignored.

"Youth want freedom," says Saker al Mokayyad, head of the international section at Naif Arab University for Security Services. "A young man has a car and money in his pocket, but what can he do? Nothing. He looks at TV and sees others doing things he can't do and wonders why."

The U.S. & Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is one of the most powerful nations in the Middle East and an important U.S. ally in the region. Ever since an American company discovered oil in Saudi Arabia more than 70 years ago, the two countries have had a complex relationship. Its influence stems largely from its oil wealth--Saudi Arabia has almost 20 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 Muhammed effectively serving as a constitution. Unrelated men and women are completely segregated from one another. Women must wear black head-to-toe coverings called abayas in public. Marriages are arranged by families, with the couple usually meeting for the first time when they become engaged.

The nation is a near-absolute monarchy, led by King Abdullah, a member of the Al Saud family that has ruled Saudi Arabia since 1932. A push for reform resulted in local council elections being held for the first time in 2005, but the councils are largely symbolic and have no real power.

Beneath the surface, tensions are brewing. Every society has young people who resent authority, reject rules, and seek to exert their independence. But because Saudi Arabia is such an authoritarian society, there's much more to rebel against.

Some young people adopt Western...