Exactly a year ago, Saudi newspapers carried a story about an all-women’s football match at a university in the Eastern Province. It was a match between a team from the university and one from a women’s college in Riyadh. It took place behind the walls of the women’s university and naturally had an audience of women only. Nevertheless, that single match brought much trouble to the university. It was criticized by the local and religious authorities and the university was made to understand in no uncertain terms that such things were not permissible and should not have happened in the first place.

This incident was the first thing to come to my mind when I read recently in Al-Watan newspaper about the formation of a women’s football team in Jeddah. The paper interviewed the team captain, Reema Abdallah, who talked about how the team had come together and the matches it had played with similar teams.

According to the captain, a group of women who love football decided to form a team and actually rented a private compound with a playground and swimming pool so they could practice away from men’s eyes. The women donated money for the expenses and they managed to get a local company to sponsor their matches. Now they are proud that they have three teams, each with 15 players, and that they have competed against each other and three other new women’s teams. Abdallah said the games were popular with women and children who come to watch, but she had to add that the games were held privately in a closed stadium so as not to offend or cause controversy. The project has prospered by remaining private. The number of people who know about it is small.

At this point, I began to feel worried about the women — now, having gone public, they can surely expect trouble. As the Eastern Province case proved, there are still those who do not approve of women in sports; they consider it a breach of tradition with some claiming it is against religious rules as well. In that specific case, the imams condemned the event. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice said that the match had invited men’s attention. No men attended the match but, as the commission stressed at the time, they gathered outside the venue and this was considered sufficiently harmful.

So the new team will have to contend with a wave of condemnation from the commission and maybe the local authorities, let alone vigilantes who interpret the law as they understand it. There is also, of course, all the fatwas that consider sports for girls a bad thing that have harmful effects — though no one has told us what the effects are; that is simply left to the individual imagination.

But for those who like to pick on Saudi women, just a small reminder: We are told that we have to have our own world away from men. As girls we had our games, so it makes sense that when we grow up, we should still enjoy them with our friends. What reason is there for men to feel offended?

Hanging over all of this of course is the ban on physical education in girls’ schools. Up to now, the Ministry of Education has refused to allow it. No substantial reasons have ever been given for the prohibition. Instead, vague explanations are offered, such as the importance of respecting social traditions. Girls are not supposed to imitate boys. But individual projects like the women’s teams reported in Al-Watan say much more about Saudi women’s needs. Instead of being content with shopping and social gatherings, many would prefer to fill their time with more enjoyable and useful activities and exercise.