JEDDAH, 22 August 2003 — From the ritzy shopping promenades of Tahlia Street to the more traditional buildings of downtown Jeddah, vandals have been leaving their mark by spray-painting their names, telephone numbers and profanity on all kinds of walls.

During the course of an investigation into this phenomenon, Arab News contacted one of the graffiti artists.

After assuring the 19-year-old vandal that we were not the police, he happily agreed to shed light on the topic. “The reason behind leaving my number at random is that it is a good way to get girlfriends,” he said. He went on to say that he had been successful. “I have met and gone out with many girls using this technique.”

The walls are usually painted between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. “Me and a number of people I know do this: It’s a fun thing to do. Many of the things we write have references to rap music, such as K.551 and homicide 187,” our source said.

Shop owners and the police have asked the sprayers to stop, but to no avail. “Sometimes shop owners or police call me and complain, but I just deny it,” he said.

One of the walls constantly used by graffiti gangs is that of the Basateen Mall in Tahlia Street. The right side of the mall and all through the back is one long stretch of graffiti. “We are tired of those people,” said Muhammad Al-Monaie, the general executive manager of Al-Basateen Real-Estate Co. Ltd, when Arab News interviewed him in his office.

“This is a cry for attention,” says 17-year-old Muhannad Nassar, who was shopping at Al-Basateen Mall. “These acts are committed by low-class trash. I think there are 500 other reasonable ways to attract girls’ attention; any girls that would go out with these vandals are low-class-trash like them.”

Young men however, are not the only ones using the city walls as their personal canvases. Two teenage girls were also caught by security while they were spray-painting one of Al-Basateen’s walls. “The girls apologized and sent workers on their behalf to repair the damages they had done,” a security official at the mall told Arab News.

The damage caused by graffiti is costing shops a lot of money. It costs about SR3,000 annually to maintain the walls of Al-Basateen Mall. Other businesses are suffering even more. “Because the wall is made of Italian granite, it will cost us SR25,000 to restore it to new,” said Pierre Kassab, Deputy General Manager of Bulgari, whose store has been a victim of profanity painted next to the entrance of the shop.

Many factors contribute to the spread of the phenomenon. While Kassab believes that social incentives are behind it, “it is obvious that this is a reflection of hidden social problems out there.”

Others like Al-Monaie think that times of political stress also have an effect. He noticed during the war on Iraq that the back wall of his mall became a place for political statements. “Many political slogans — some resisting and others backing the war — were all over the place,” he explained.

Indeed along with gaining attention or appealing to girls there are other essential reasons that are causing the spread of the phenomenon.

Many teenagers find in graffiti a way to escape the social and political reality they experience; it is a way to express their anger and indignation toward a society which they feel restricts their activities and ways of expressing themselves.

Even the historical Hejazi architecture in Balad area has not been spared. Many old buildings that are considered parts of Jeddah’s unique and rich heritage are frequently vandalized.

Sami Nawar, the director of the historic area preservation department in Balad, said he was worried but, when asked whether his department had any plans to combat graffiti, he said: “When preserving a historic area of the size of one square kilometer, we need to have our priorities.” Nawar continued: “Our priority right now is to restore the crumbling buildings and protect them from demolition, not to protect them from acts of vandalism.”