Rashed Al-Fawzan Al-Riyadh I WALK regularly between Maghreb and Isha prayers. During my stroll, I have noticed many times young men verbally abusing women walking on the street. In other countries, such behavior is punishable with imprisonment. One would feel ashamed at the words some men say to women. I have seen men walking in the area specified for jogging while smoking. I have seen men getting physical when harassing women. If all these things happen to women on the street, what about what happens inside malls? Every day we watch or hear about a video clip shot on a cell phone that shows young men harassing women amid an absence of deterrent punishments. What perplexes me is that women who come to the walking area with uncovered faces don't face any harassment. I don't understand this. It seems that what these young men are looking for is what is forbidden. As for streets and cars, there are accidents on a daily basis. Recent statistics released by the Traffic Department showed that 24 people die in accidents in the Kingdom each day: a victim every hour and most of them young. I don't want to hold the youth solely responsible for these accidents because families, schools, society and our laws are all to blame. I don't know if I can say that our youth are out of control but we must admit that the youth pose a major problem for society. We need to give youth problems and behavior greater attention because if their negative behavior continues to go unaddressed, the consequences could be disastrous. Many people who want to go out and spend some time at malls or parks are frightened by the behavior of our youth. The solution for this problem starts from home and school. Youth need to understand the importance of discipline. Laws should be enforced in order to be respected. This is how our society will achieve some sort of balance.
