Young Saudi Girls in Private Schools Finally Allowed to Participate in Sports Activities

One of the most recent monumental changes in the effort to expand women’s rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), an ultra conservative country, is happening in the field of sports. For the first time ever, young Saudi girls in private schools will be allowed to participate in sports activities organized by their schools. This is the first official sanction of the Saudi government in sports in schools in terms of female participation since the unprecedented appearance of female Saudi athletes in the 2012 summer Olympics in London last year.

A female professor at King Saud University, Aziza Youssef, said that it is about time for this change to be affected. She added that everything is held back in her country, especially for Saudi women. This announcement was made in Saudi Arabia’s official press agency.

Strict regulations

In order to participate in sports, the education ministry requires the girls in all-female private schools to engage in sports while strictly adhering to proper dress code. The Ministry spokesman specified that the girls must dress modestly. Preferably, the girls will be supervised by female teachers during such activity. And the private schools need to provide them adequate and appropriate sports facilities.

This move is just one of the first of many changes that aim to increase the rights of Saudi women. Mohammed al-Dakhini, a spokesman for the Education Ministry said that the decision to allow this stems from teachings that allow women certain activities for as long as these are compliant with the rules of sharia.

Sports for women

Women in Saudi Arabia can engage in sports activities but access is limited only to those who have membership in exclusive health clubs. These health clubs ask for expensive membership fees and are limited only to the wealthy. The clubs are usually attached to hospitals. The reason for this is that three years ago, all gyms meant for the use of the female population were closed because they did not have a license.

The participation of Saudi women in the last Olympics became possible only after the IOC or International Olympics Committee put pressure on the KSA to allow female athletes to participate in this global event. The Kingdom has been sending only male athletes to the Games. Despite the fact that women did compete in London, their participation were not shown on the Kingdom’s television coverage of the 2012 Games.

Not that big a deal

However, for some such as blogger Eman al-Nafjan, this is not a huge deal since private schools in Saudi Arabia already have sports and physical education programs which the government is aware of. According to Al-Nafjan, the announcement is not bound to change much for students who are studying in private schools, but rather, its benefits could seep into the public school system which does not yet have sports programs for girls.

Al Nafjan also said that the government could be using this as a feeler or barometer in order to determine whether or not there would be a backlash from Saudi society. Apparently, a number of attempts to incorporate sports programs in public schools were done in the past, but they were met with a lot of resistance and not one ever pushed through.