The treatment of women’s sports and physical education for girls in the Kingdom is disappointing. The Ministry of Education has reservations about permitting sports and physical education in girls’ schools. It says that the matter is under study. In my opinion, the ministry is afraid of the hard-liners who oppose women’s sports and games.
The hard-liners have been resisting the idea of introducing sports in girls’ schools with the argument that it could lead to moral depravity.
A dangerous consequence of physical exercise will be, as claimed by preacher Abdullah Al-Shemali in a television program, that girls would be attracted to one another by their physical appearance. I wonder if girls would not feel any attraction for other girls if they do not practice sports.
The kind of attraction the hard-liners fear is attributed by experts to some genetic or psychological disorders and not to physical exercise.
The Youth Welfare Ministry does not help women set up sport clubs. Any woman seeking the help of the department would be told that women’s clubs are not within its jurisdiction. The Ministry of Commerce also does not entertain applications from women for a license to set up a club. This situation has prompted some women to open clubs without obtaining licenses. The hard-liners who oppose women’s sports scare people by saying that the move to introduce sports in schools is clear proof of an ongoing conspiracy to corrupt Saudi society. They resort to the conspiracy theory because there is no religious text to support their opposition.
Any attempt to bring in modern ideas into our social life is opposed by hard-liners. For instance, they are currently waging a war against the idea of teaching boys and girls together. The hard-liners argue that this is yet another conspiracy to destroy Saudi society. In fact there is no religious law to prevent children between six and nine studying together. What is ironic about the hard-liners’ opposition is that they always insist decisions should be made on the basis of the Shariah.
So in this case, we would actually be making the right decision in allowing boys and girls to learn together.
On the issue of women’s sports, we should also ask if there is any religious law prohibiting it. I am sure that people know that the Shariah does not prohibit women from performing physical exercise. Hard-liners should not be allowed to produce justifications to declare the lawful as unlawful. Society should strongly reject their unreasonable justifications. If the hard-liners were allowed to get away with lame excuses, they would demand the banning of all fruits because some intoxicating drinks are made from them. They would argue that the enemies are conspiring to destroy Saudi society by exporting fruit to the country.
