This study aims to identify and explain the challenges facing civil society activism in Saudi Arabia based on Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory. The central research question concerns how the country’s political, legal, administrative, and cultural structures shape the scope of action available to civil society organizations and actors, and what capacities and strategies these actors employ in response to such constraints. In terms of its purpose, the study is explanatory-analytical, while methodologically it adopts a qualitative approach. Data were collected through documentary analysis and a review of scholarly articles, books, official documents, and relevant reports on civil society in Saudi Arabia. The data were analyzed using theory-driven thematic analysis. The findings indicate that licensing requirements, administrative oversight, the financial and organizational dependence of civil society organizations, restrictions on independent activities, control over public and digital spaces, and sensitivity toward political advocacy constitute the major barriers to civil society activism in Saudi Arabia. Consequently, a significant proportion of civil society activities has been confined to charitable, educational, cultural, and social service domains. Nevertheless, civil society actors have created opportunities for sustaining their activities and achieving gradual influence through informal networks, trust-based relationships, voluntary initiatives, digital media, and the opportunities emerging from ongoing social reforms. From a Giddensian perspective, structures are not merely constraining forces; they also provide actors with rules and resources that enable action. Accordingly, civil society activism in Saudi Arabia is neither entirely autonomous nor completely passive; rather, it is shaped through an ongoing process of adaptation, negotiation, and reinterpretation of structural constraints.