A coffee shop in one of Riyadh’s late-night malls offers a glimpse of the social and economic changes that are sweeping across Saudi Arabia. Liberally dressed Saudi twenty-somethings scroll through social media feeds on their iPhones and kick back as the basslines of Stromae, a Belgian hip-hop artist, reverberate across the room. Art works depicting feminist iconography and 1920s-style hedonism – painted by a local artist – adorn the walls in a floor-to-ceiling display.
Scenes of this kind would have been unthinkable in the capital just a few years ago. But Saudi Arabia is changing. Under the auspices of crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, the cultural fabric of the country is transforming; conservative orthodoxies hold less sway and the political, social and cultural centre of gravity now lies with a new generation of globally minded and progressive young Saudis. This constituency forms the bedrock of the crown prince’s support across the country.
