Young Saudi men and women, who are physically segregated almost everywhere, are using Bluetooth phones to flirt. Now, I'm not saying that technology triumphs over all. I used to think that the nature of the Internet prevented censorship, but the Chinese gov't seems to be doing a decent job of that despite proxies. I'm more saying that you can't fundamentally change human nature.
Yes, restrictive social rules have certainly ruled for centuries in many places, so they can last for a while, but this is why I think of "Western" society as "progressive" and not just "different". Western society has found ways of allowing human nature to flourish, rather than suppressing it. Of course, human nature isn't always a good thing for society, but the most effective strategy is to understand it, harness it, and work with it, not against it.