Saudi Arabia to establish sport centres for women

http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi_arabia/10184443.html

By Mariam Al Hakeem, Staff Reporter
Published: January 24, 2008, 17:18

Riyadh: Saudi Arabia is planning to establish women sport clubs, according to a Saudi source.

"The General President of Youth Welfare (GPYW) intends to establish a department for female sport clubs," the source said, adding that the plan for all-female sport clubs will be forwarded to the King for approval.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity told Gulf News that the clubs will operate in accordance with Sharia and will be set up in different parts of the Kingdom. They will also be furnished with all the necessary equipment and operated by women.

Initially, the clubs will begin operating in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Burida in Qasim region and then at a later stage, others will be opened in other parts of the Kingdom, the source added.

Earlier, the youth and family affairs committee at the Saudi Shura [Consultative Council] recommended the establishment of women sport clubs under the supervision of GPYW and in accordance with sharia controls.

The Saudi move comes after an appeal was made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to all its member states to set up women sport clubs by 2010. The Committee warned that it will freeze the membership of any country that fails to do that.

Meanwhile, in a rare occurrence, a female soccer match was played in Saudi Arabia. Al Watan newspaper reported that two female teams from Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University in Khobar and Al Yamamah College in Riyadh played against each other on Wednesday evening.

The match was played in a closed-door field located at Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University campus with a large number of female fans.

Both Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University and Al Yamamah College are private higher education institutions.

This is the second soccer match to be organised by Prince Mohammad University and the first between the university team and a guest team, the paper reported.

Prince Mohammad University began organising the football match a year and a half ago.

Physical education is banned at Saudi public schools, and the issue has stirred debate in the past few years as some educationalists and doctors called for a lift on this ban saying that the lack of physical exercise at Saudi schools is to be blamed for the high rate of obesity among Saudi women.

Some educational experts emphasised that not allowing female students to exercise will negatively affect their academic performance.

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I'm doing my digital ethno project and Saudi Arabia, so i've been coming across a lot of new articles and this one really stuck out to me. As stated in the article "Physical education is banned at Saudi public schools" for women and women's sports is very taboo in their country. Women who do play sports can only do, so in "underground" clubs or private schools. I am very shocked and happy to see that Saudi Arabia is consider accepting and funding women's sports publically. This is a great step forward to ending the cultrual and political restriction of womens sports.

Posted by: Matthew Brian Urtnowski 007107579