For Asma, spending a day on the beach with her boyfriend was unthinkable until recently in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia. Now, the 32-year-old is dancing with her partner on white sands fringing the Red Sea, to music thumping from loudspeakers. It’s a small reminder of the changes underway in the Islamic kingdom, which is attempting to ease some of its tight social strictures in a modernization drive at the same time as a crackdown on dissent. Music was banned in public places until 2017, a measure enforced by the religious police, and women were only allowed to drive a year later. Beaches are still usually segregated between men and women.

Beach in Jeddah shows shifting sands in conservative country. (2021, October 17). Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. B2-5.