The overwhelming approval of the Shoura Council in a 92-18 vote to give girls at public schools the right to participate in physical education is yet another signal that the council, with its strong backing of women members, is pushing forward to further the cause of Saudi women.
Whether the Shoura Council’s recommendation — and remember it’s only a recommendation — is implemented by the Ministry of Education remains to be seen, but it’s easy to see the influence of the Shoura’s female members. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that only when women came on board that the physical education issue gained any traction. It also bodes well that men joined their female colleagues in supporting the issue.
Physical education for women is a no-brainer, like riding bicycles and driving cars. By approving sports in an academic setting for girls, Saudi society takes one small step to reduce the infantilizing of women. I see it as a positive move that will eventually lead to addressing the driving issue in a more mature and thoughtful manner than what we have seen in the past from our government.
From a health standpoint, it’s a vital necessity. In a country that has a female obesity rate of a whopping 44 percent, the rational person would say, “Hey, ladies it’s time to hit the treadmill or play a little football.”
But even if we are talking about allowing girls to participate in sports at the middle- or high-school levels, that’s too late. Studies have shown that obesity can develop as early as the age of 5, making it extremely difficult for young people to shed that weight by the time they are teens.
Still, we have nitwits who seem to think there is something deviant in women exercising. One Saudi guy, who must lay sleepless at nights fretting over the sanctity of the female body, recently tweeted, “If we keep silent about the step of adding PE classes to girls’ schools then we are giving the Shoura Council a green light to continue the steps of westernization and these steps will end in infidelity and prostitution.”
Those infidel westerners are at it again: Corrupting our youth with the concept of exercising to stay fit. Who knew that it would lead to the lonely road of sin and misery? I know, let’s ask Sheikha bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the karate silver medalist at the 2006 Doha Asian Games and the first Gulf woman to carry the UAE flag at the Olympics, how she feels about equating physical education with prostitution.
Many in the Kingdom have an unhealthy obsession with women in general and such people will continue opposing such positive moves.
I had a Saudi driver who told me once that he didn’t mind that his wife was gaining weight. He wanted her to be fat so other men wouldn’t look at her. So I know of men out there keeping their women prisoners in their own bodies, which extends to the mind. But many of us have the wherewithal to understand that Saudi women represent 50 percent of our society and serve as half of Saudi Arabia’s intellectual resource. To have a healthy brain, one must have a healthy body.
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