IN A situation truly the first of its kind, a 12-year-old girl managed to disrupt a football match in Al-Ahsa several days ago. The unprecedented presence of the alien “girl” was enough to trigger a long debate between the referees and the security guards concerning what should be done about the invader. After 36 minutes of discussions, the security guards asked the girl to leave the stadium.

The news item originally appeared in local Saudi papers and was picked up by news agencies as an amusing story. And to tell the truth, there is a funny side to the tale when you realize that a group of grown men got so upset by the presence of a 12-year old girl at a football match. Al Watan newspaper quoted one of the referees as saying that they were not sure if they should start the game and that one of them saw no reason to delay the match since the presence of the girl had nothing to do with the referees’ duties.

The comments of readers on the story were also very interesting. One of them said that it was normal for a girl to be in the stadium, and that lots of girls watch football matches anyway. Others thought more or less the same — all saying that she could have come to the stadium with her father and that she was, after all, only a harmless child. The reactions, however, were so lenient and understanding for the simple reason that she was indeed a harmless child. One reader remarked: “What is so wrong with a young girl watching a football match? If she were in one of the city’s side streets, she would be watching football matches between the young men playing there and no one would have stopped playing because of her presence.” He continued: “But our problem is that our minds are superficial and we insist that girls should always be excluded.” Another reader accurately observed: “At the Asia Cup, among the spectators there were lots of Saudi girls who were older than this girl.”

One of the more satisfying comments — at least to me — went like this: “This news needs to be thought about and contemplated. We need to ask ourselves: Are there any rules preventing girls and women from attending football matches? What about the slogan we keep hearing that sports are for everybody?” The questions that he poses are interesting and they point to an open-minded person.

Other readers were sarcastic with one asking, “Did they call the fire department and tell the people to leave the stadium so that a bomb could be defused?” Another asked, “If women have a place in mosques, shouldn’t there be a place for them in stadiums?” And the ultimate question — “Why don’t they set aside a section in stadiums for families? I would love to take my wife with me so we could enjoy a match together.”

The reactions of the readers went in two directions, one group saying that the girl was a child rather than an adult woman and that therefore there was no problem with her attending a match. Others, more conservative of course, said that no females should be allowed to attend games, no matter what their ages. In reading this, one remembers all the rules that Saudi girls are taught from an early age about girls playing together and staying away from boys. This is reinforced very early with the segregation of boys and girls in elementary school, thus creating a barrier which remains with them all their lives. Girls in our society are taught, from an early age, to have their own world and their own games

The other side of this “harmless child” idea is that some people are ready to tolerate a girl’s presence in an all-male environment as long as she is a child. (Similarly, no one is offended when a mother takes her small son into what is an all-female environment.) The other side of the argument comes from those who reacted with surprising open mindedness, saying that women have the same right to enjoy sports as men.

It is a simple incident but it sheds light on an issue that has become one of the main concerns of Saudi society. I am speaking about a woman’s right to have a full normal life, one in which she is allowed to play sports and enjoy them. This is a very sore point for many women who would enjoy participating in sports but are prevented from doing so unless they go to private clubs — and even there the range is limited.

This also brings us back to the illogical and twisted reasoning that has placed a ban on sports and physical education in girls’ schools. Whatever we can say, the incident in Al-Ahsa shows the development of the public discourse on the rules that prevent the mixing of the sexes in public. Discussion is always good, and I hope more girls follow this girl’s example. They need to speak up and tell everyone that they actually exist and have rights.