Saudi Arabia to Finally Permit Women to Participate in the Olympics?

BySCEME

Saudi Arabia to Finally Permit Women to Participate in the Olympics?

Within the passages of the Olympic Charter are written the words:  

and it is these words that have great meaning for Saudi women at present. As Human Rights Watch has noted, “government restrictions on women essentially bar them from sports” with sports clubs being the domain of the Kingdom’s men, and women absent from the stands of the country’s stadia.

However, following a frustrating flip-flopping of decisions from Riyadh, there is reason for new hope that Saudi women may finally be awarded their right to compete on the courts, tracks and fields of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In response to the threats of The International Olympic Committee (IOC) that Saudi Arabia risks being banned from participating in the Games if it continued to disallow women from participating, Crown Prince Nayef has taken the landmark move of giving his approval for Saudi women to participate in this year’s games.

This move is not without reservations (approval is only granted for women to participate in sports which “meet the standards of women’s decency and don’t contradict Islamic laws”) and talks between the IOC and Riyadh are still in progress; yet the IOC is hopeful that it will see Saudi women compete on the field this summer.

At SCEME, we certainly know who we hope to be supporting in London 2012.