Unmarried men and women are not allowed to associate freely. There are no movies, no nightclubs, no venues for ogling on the street or chatting about the weather. With the exception of a souk, or market, and a few malls patrolled by morality police who keep an eye out for imprudent behavior, downtown Riyadh tends to be deserted outside business hours. Parents in these families say pressure is developing, particularly among an upcoming generation of educated girls, to have more say in whom and when they marry. But that change will come slowly.
Girls see themselves differently.
They see men differently. . . . They will marry elsewhere, and the society will be opened. The most severe problems attributed to inbreeding remain comparatively rare. Far more widespread are blood disorders that leave the patient faced with a lifetime of periodic transfusions, which doctors here say are already taxing the Saudi public health system. Also common are defects involving a single gene.