Saudi women may compete in Olympics

The Summer Olympics in London could be a watershed event for international sports as every participating nation is expected to field at least one female athlete, including three Muslim countries – Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei – that have previously sent only male competitors.

Saudi Arabia, a monarchy whose legal system is based on Islamic law, is considered the most significant of the three, given its size, international oil influence and severe restrictions placed on women in daily life. While female athletes from Qatar and Brunei have participated in national and regional competitions, Saudi Arabia has essentially barred sports for women, according to Human Rights Watch.

A pan-Arab newspaper based in London, Al-Hayat, reported Tuesday that the Saudi Crown Prince Nayef has approved the participation of female athletes in London as long as their sports “meet the standards of women’s decency and don’t contradict Islamic laws.”

The International Olympic Committee said in a statement that it met with Saudi Olympic officials last week and that it was “confident that Saudi Arabia is working to include women athletes and officials at the Olympic Games in London.” Human Rights Watch, which has accused the IOC of violating its own charter for equality by allowing Saudi Arabia into the Games while discriminating against women, said it could not confirm the Arab newspaper report. “While tokenistic participation is welcome, it wouldn’t change our position that the IOC should affect more systemic change,” said Christoph Wilcke of Germany, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Middle Eastern and North African division.

Systematic discrimination

Wilcke was the lead author of a report issued last month by Human Rights Watch that detailed the struggles facing female athletes in Saudi Arabia. According to the report, Saudi officials systematically discriminated against women, providing no physical education for girls in state schools, closing gyms for women in 2009 and 2010 and forcing them to play in underground leagues.

Saudi Arabia has faced widespread criticism in the West for its general treatment of women, who must receive permission from male guardians to gain employment, get an education, open a bank account, get married and travel abroad. Effectively, they are forbidden from driving automobiles.

“How many countries ban PE for girls?” Wilcke said in a phone interview from Munich.
Human Rights Watch has requested that female Saudi athletes be allowed to participate in the London Games; that physical education for girls be taught in schools; and that an outreach program be started to encourage women to participate in sports.

A list of several potential athletes for the London Games was presented by Saudi officials to the IOC last week.  A formal proposal for the inclusion of female Saudi athletes at the London Games will be made to the IOC’s executive board in Quebec City in late May.

These athletes will likely find it difficult or impossible to meet Olympic qualifying standards, given their lack of international experience. But the IOC has long granted participation under special conditions to athletes from developing nations. And it is under significant pressure to make accommodations for Saudi women in London.

Human Rights Watch has suggested that a female track athlete be among those named to the Saudi Olympic team, given that she could cover herself with a headscarf and an unrevealing uniform as opposed, to say, a swimmer, Wilcke said.
One possible entrant is a teenage equestrian, Dalma Rushdi Malhas, who won a bronze medal at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.

Female athletes in Saudi Arabia could still face headwinds in getting funding to compete, said Erika George, a professor at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. And, she said, the welcome reception for Olympic contenders could be icy.

“There are people who may think it’s inappropriate,” George said. “But there’s precedent for this. It’s going to be hard to argue that a woman can be an Olympic champion but not be behind the wheel.”

Should Saudi Arabia also send female officials to the Olympics, that, too, would be “significant progress,” George said. “That’s a power position. Maybe not always a prominent one, but that’s women making decisions, and I think that’s really going to challenge perceptions.”