RIYADH: While Olympic leaders and human rights advocates are encouraged by signs that Saudi Arabia may bow to pressure and send female athletes to the Summer Games, women athletes in the kingdom are worried about a backlash.
Under pressure from the International Olympic Committee to end the tradition of sending men-only teams, Saudi Arabia said on Monday it will allow women who qualify to compete in London.
Women who play in underground leagues around Saudi Arabia support those efforts, yet they also fear that hardline Muslim leaders will punish them for being pressured by the West and will crack down on women’s clandestine activities after the Olympic flame goes out.
“We have to wait. I am afraid of their reaction, if we push too hard,” said Rawh Abdullah, a captain of a female soccer team in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Also, she added, she and her teammates simply “are not ready to compete on such level” because they cannot train properly.
Abdullah has given up her career as a teacher to run the all-women soccer club Al Tahaddi, Arabic for challenge. Since 2006, when the club was established, 25 team members meet four times a week to play after turning one of the players’ gardens into a field.
There are no written laws that prohibit women from participating in sports, but women are not allowed into stadiums, and they cannot rent athletic venues. There is no physical education for girls in public schools and the few gyms that admit women are too expensive for most to frequent.
Women cannot register sports clubs, league competitions and other female-only tournaments with the government. They are banned from entering all-male national trials, which makes it impossible for them to qualify for international competitions, including the Olympics.
Abdullah fears that sending inadequately prepared athletes to the London Games could do more harm than good to their cause of making sports “part of our lifestyle” and achieve change for millions of women.
“If they do well, it will be OK, but if they have weak performance, they will turn to us, and say, ‘See, you pushed, you went, and you lost. You shamed us,'” Abdullah said.
“When we are prepared in four years’ time, and they have to send us, we can say to them: ‘You want me to go and represent my country? Now train us. Give us facilities to use and coaches to work with, and we will make you proud,'” Abdullah said.
Saudi Arabia is the home of Islam’s holiest sites, and women bear the brunt of their nation’s deeply conservative values. They are often the target of the kingdom’s intrusive religious police.
Besides being barred from driving, women are not allowed to vote, and they cannot be members of the Cabinet. They cannot travel either, be admitted to the hospital or take a job without permission from a male guardian.
Rights groups claim a lot has to change for women in Saudi Arabia to convince the international sporting community that the country’s leadership is ready for women’s inclusion in the Olympics.
Human Rights Watch isn’t convinced that Monday’s announcement was anything other than to appease international criticism as gender discrimination remains “institutional and entrenched.”
Saudi officials had previously left open a possibility that women studying abroad would be able to compete as independent athletes. However, that option was quashed after pressure from rights groups and the IOC. It was also criticized by athletes like Abdullah.
“Do I have to leave my country to show what we can achieve? If I don’t achieve our goal to play and compete at home for me and for my team, then I will for those who will play after us,” Abdullah said. (AP)