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Frustrations Drive Saudi Youth to the Graffiti Wall
Abdullah al-Alwani, or X 5, is a college dropout and graffiti artist in Jiddah.
(By Faiza Saleh Ambah -- The Washington Post)
VIDEO | Graffiti Engages Saudi Youth
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True to his word, Abo-Umara held a two-day workshop called "What Do Youth Want From Jiddah?" in July, shortly after his meeting with Alwani. More than 200 young men and women attended, on separate days, and their list of demands included cinemas, public libraries, and music and art centers.
The young women asked for private beaches for women and girls, for at least widows and divorced women to be permitted to drive, and for boys who harass them to be fined.
Both groups requested sports facilities, of which there are very few in Saudi Arabia.
Abo-Umara was able to implement one demand immediately: walls dedicated to graffiti.
At the palm-tree-lined Faisal bin Fahd walkway, women in black cloaks, black head scarves and running shoes walk determinedly, as men in shorts and T-shirts jog past. On a grassy embankment in the middle, more than 40 graffiti canvases have been set up.
On a recent day, young men on their knees mixed paint and drew. On one canvas, a dejected face had been drawn between the words "No Girls" and "Why?"
Another canvas depicted a group of young men behind cage bars, looking out at a mall-lined street.
"Young men are oppressed here," said Mohammad Qarni, 20, sitting on a bench painted with swear words. "We don't have anything to do in our spare time, and we're not even allowed into malls. That's why I started spray-painting. As a protest."
Qarni said he stopped only after he narrowly escaped arrest and Alwani persuaded him to accept the city's amnesty offer.
"All I want is equality with girls," said Qarni, who has cropped hair and wears glasses. "They're allowed to go to malls anytime, and when they flirt with us and we just flirt back, the cops always believe them."
Young men stand outside malls for hours sometimes, mainly on weekends, in the hope of getting in.
During a recent evening at a mall on trendy Tahlia Street, Alwani stood with two friends, all dressed in jeans and T-shirts, and pleaded with security guards stationed at the large glass doors to let them in, while groups of young women in black cloaks and colored head scarves, some wearing heavy makeup, breezed past.
