The separation between the sexes in Saudi Arabia is so extreme that it is difficult to overstate. Saudi women may not drive, and they must wear black abayas and head coverings in public at all times. They are spirited around the city in cars with tinted windows, attend girls-only schools and university departments, and eat in special “family” sections of cafes and restaurants, which are carefully partitioned from the sections used by single male diners.
While this sort of statement is a familiar occurence in most media reports about Muslim countries, the current series in the New York Times, Generation Faithful, manages to explore the subjects facing the average youth in hyper-traditional Muslim countries with a relative level of subtetly. Examining things from the male point of view in one article, then spending time with their female counterparts in another, one gets a remarkable feeling of immersion in the environment of these young men and women. Though many anecdotes will boggle the mind of most Western readers, they are presented as facts, in order to give a sense of how conservative these young people's social environment is. While it's hard to believe how such conservatism manages to hold on, even when so little of it makes sense, at least the article let the reader make up their own minds about it, and eschews the proselytizing so common in these stories.
While the systemic violence against women is, appallingly, worse than most people might imagine, one does get a measured sense of hope through the fact that at least these youngsters seem more exposed to the outside world than previous generations. Here and there small but significant proofs of desire and expectations show up, as underlying signs of how universal much of what they are going through is. While that will not compensate the darker sides of these countries' social conservatism, it does give a face to these issues. And in the process, invites the reader to reflect on these problems not just in those countries, but in theirs as well.
While the systemic violence against women is, appallingly, worse than most people might imagine, one does get a measured sense of hope through the fact that at least these youngsters seem more exposed to the outside world than previous generations. Here and there small but significant proofs of desire and expectations show up, as underlying signs of how universal much of what they are going through is. While that will not compensate the darker sides of these countries' social conservatism, it does give a face to these issues. And in the process, invites the reader to reflect on these problems not just in those countries, but in theirs as well.
