JEDDAH, 1 June 2007 — The concept of Saudi women participating in sports would have been shocking news a decade ago. Not any more.
In spite of the fact that physical education is still banned in public girl’s high schools in the Kingdom, women are encouraged by members of Saudi society to get into competitive sports. Increasingly Saudi parents who see nothing wrong with girls playing sports are encouraging their daughters to engage in competitive sports even if the public educational system isn’t.
“Since I was a child my father encouraged me to play and try news sports, like windsurfing, basketball, tennis, fishing, shooting and archery, horseback riding,” said 27-year-old Saudi Serene Feteih.
“My father too encouraged me to lose weight through sports many years ago,” added Alia Soufi, 28. “My school did, too.” (Both Feteih and Soufi went to private school, some of which offers physical education programs to girls.)
Women interviewed by Arab News regarding female participation in sporting events all generally agreed that it should be encouraged. Some of them expressed the view that sports shouldn’t take precedent over family life.
“I would give up work, but not family and marriage,” said Soha Iskandar, a 27-year-old Saudi student, who also said the Kingdom needs professional sporting clubs for women.
Twenty-seven years old Marwa Ali, senior manpower planner in a private company said: “I would not give up my life for a sport professional career that won’t last when I am old.”
Sports for these women came as a secondary thing, though, says Feteih: “one should be able to make a balance.”
The women also said that media plays an important role in getting Saudis used to the idea of women in professional sports.
Men, most of who were under the age of 30, interviewed by Arab News generally agreed that women should be allowed to participate in sporting events and that social attitudes are changing.
“It’s for her own benefit and health,” said Ghassan Tashkandi, a 29-year-old husband and lab supervisor, who added that as women are increasingly seen participating in sports men will change their attitudes about having wives who are professional athletes.
Talal Iskandar, a 29-year-old Saudi co-pilot, said that given the right encouragement Saudi women could go to the Olympics and win the gold. To date no Saudi woman has ever participated in the Olympics.
“When these women are given the right training, freedom, and liberation from social restrictions and abuse, they (could win the gold),” said Iskandar.
The men told Arab News they had no problems with women flying to training camps as long as it was supervised and well organized. Some of them said they preferred women play the individual rather than team sports because they thought the chances of injury was lower. The women, on the other hand, said they preferred team sports.
Jameel Asaad, 45, a retired employee, said women should be allowed to attend public matches. Currently, public sporting events are wholly a male-oriented activity and women are not allowed in football stadiums.
But times are changing. It’s only been in the past five years that private colleges have started to host tournaments for women, including basketball and tennis.
There have been nascent attempts to start women’s clubs, although they were later shut down. These events are typically low key and unpublicized out of fear that authorities will put a stop to them. (Supporters of women in sport often refer to Hadiths that describe the Prophet Muhammad, pbuh, playing sports with his youngest wife Aisha.)
In Dammam recently a private university was going to hold the Kingdom’s first football (soccer) tournament for women in March. As soon as it was publicized in the papers, the members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice forced the college to cancel the competition in spite of the women-only aspect of the event, and after the college had paid to have professional referees from Canada flown in.
In spite of these type of setbacks it seems the social tide is working slowly but surely in favor of bringing Saudi women into sports. There are Saudi women sports writers and athletes. There are Saudi women coaches, such as Maysoon Al-Sowayigh, a sports coordinator at Jeddah’s Effat College for women and received her basketball coaching license from UAE.
Today Saudi women are participating in football, basketball, table tennis, equestrian events and even car racing. (Saudi car racing athlete Amal Abdullah, 20, was seen participating Bahrain Lumina Rally in November.) Although no green light has been given, there is a push to bring Saudi women to championships in these sports.
Saudi woman equestrians Alia Al-Huwaete, Nourah Al-Yousif and young Latifah Al-Shaikh, 14, were the first to play officially and receive a considerable amount of criticism for their actions. But with the support of their sponsor, Kingdom Holding Company owned by Prince Al-Waleed ibn Talal (a widely known advocate of women in sports), they succeeded in delivering many successes even in endurance competitions.
Now people are pushing their daughters to do the same and make their country proud.
“We saw many Muslims in the 15th Asian Games in Doha who were decent in their clothes and were proud to represent their country,” said 20-year-old Saudi college student Haya Al-Ahmad.
“We share the same dream, too, and hope we would get the support to train and to be able to participate in the Beijing Olympics 2008. Who knows? We might be lucky enough to add more medals to our country. We deserve our chance.”
