Football fanatic Lama Abdullah, 19, remembers witnessing the crowning of Saudi Arabia as Arabian Gulf Cup Champion in 2000 when her uncle took her to the final game at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh.

That was her last visit to a stadium in Saudi Arabia. Having reached the age of 10, she was considered “too old” to be going to stadiums. Due to the complete segregation of the sexes, women are barred from attending football games in the Kingdom.

The issue of women attending sports matches has risen again with the ongoing 19th Arabian Gulf Cup Championship in Oman, which continues to draw huge crowds of Saudi women fans. Away from home, they crowd into the Sultan Qaboos Stadium expressing a real patriotism toward their national team. They wave green flags, put on green makeup, take pictures of the game with their cell phones, and cheer Saudi Arabia and its beloved striker, Yasser Al-Qahtani.

Though foreign women in exceptional cases are permitted to attend friendly games inside the Kingdom. When their national teams play against Saudi Arabia, there is a firm line drawn around Saudi women entering a soccer field. The Saudi Football Federation’s view on this is: No women in stands, even in segregated sections. And yet when asked why there is this rule, the federation officials have clearly and repeatedly stated that allowing or banning women to attend football game is not their responsibility.

But many women football fans are not convinced that they need to cross borders just to watch their national team

“Our cheers are not less important than those of men,” said Shaimaa Al-Rahsid, who is now in Muscat with her brothers. “Watching the national team live on its way to the cup is just awesome!”

She believes that women in stadiums add a healthy atmosphere to the game.

“I really hope that sport officials would consider us powerful supporters of the team and make separate sections for families, that’s our ultimate dream,” said Al-Rashid, who had also previous experience in supporting the Saudi national team during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Alia Al-Howaity, A Saudi champion jockey, also sees women’s appearance as spectators at sport competitions as a positive thing, because it increases the awareness that Saudi Arabia has women fans.

“Currently there is plenty of information on Saudi sport fanatics, but nothing on the women’s side,” she said.

Even when Saudi women choose to support their team in foreign countries, their presence in the stands raises objections from some conservatives in the Kingdom. They are subjected to harsh criticism, especially on Internet forums where members go as far as to question if they are really Saudi.

Hafez Al-Madlej, who is a member of the Saudi Football Federation, said Saudi women’s presence among football supporters is not uncommon, “because football is the only sport that interests most Saudis, so there is no doubt that girls grow up loving it as well.” Nevertheless, he thinks that the intense focus from the media, not only on Saudi women fans, but also on women in general, makes Saudi women football fans look like a recent phenomenon.

Dania Shafie, a young Saudi TV presenter on MBC 3, led the cheering Saudi women fans during the 2007 Arabian Gulf Cup Championship in UAE.

“I enjoyed doing that,” she said to Arab News.

Though she has been criticized for appearing in “trendy” clothes, she thinks that supporting the national team should not be restricted to a specific gender. “Soccer is more a family game... not only men love it but also wives, daughters and even grandmothers,” she added.

Writing for the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, sports columnist Saleh Al-Hammadi wrote a column titled “The Cheer Girls...Yes They Are Saudis” in which he criticized women fans. Al-Hammadi blasted fans who appear in international sport events in Western clothes instead of conservative Islamic attire.

“I am not against women’s right to attend a football game but I oppose anything that encourages women to abandon conservative Muslims values,” he explained to Arab News, adding that many Saudi girls create an image of Saudi women that doesn’t represent an Islamic country.

“This image will make it difficult for Saudi sport officials to lift the ban on women football attendance,” he added

Tethkar Al-Kathlan is one of the few Saudi sports writers who believe that the best place for women to watch football is at home. “Women’s reactions and excitements are different than those of men. And sometimes their screams and whistles are cheesy and this doesn’t fit our Muslim society,” she said.

Regardless of the opposition, there isn’t anything that will stop diehard women fans from attending matches abroad and while their battle to attend matches in Saudi Arabia is ongoing, they have already won the battle abroad.