Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

OP - June 25, 2012, 05:54 PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/24/2012-olympics-saudi-arabia-women-compete?fb=native#_=_

Quote

Saudi Arabia has announced that it is to allow female citizens to take part in the Olympic Games this summer for the first time in the country's history.

The move comes only months after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) faced calls to ban the country from London 2012 after the Saudi Olympic chief appeared to rule out sending women athletes to the Games.

However, a statement released by the Saudi embassy to the BBC said that the Saudi Olympic committee will "oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify".

The decision, backed by the Saudi ruler, King Abdullah, was taken 10 days ago but the announcement was delayed due to the death of the Saudi heir to the throne, Crown Prince Nayef, according to the BBC.

The Saudi regime, which closed private gyms for women in 2009 and 2010 and severely limits women's ability to undertake physical activity, has been under mounting international pressure to adopt a more liberal approach.

Tessa Jowell, the former culture secretary and Olympics minister – who is now a member of the Olympic board – said in February that the Saudis were "clearly breaking the spirit of the Olympic charter's pledge to equality" with their attitude to women in sport and the Games.

Jowell spoke out after a report by Human Rights Watch highlighted the way in which Saudi Arabian women and girls are denied the right to sport.

An equestrian jumping contestant, Dalma Malhas, 18, is likely to be Saudi Arabia's only female athlete to qualify for this summer's Games in London which get underway on 27 July.

As recently as February, the Saudi Olympic committee president, Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, said he was "not endorsing" female participation in London as part of the official delegation.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei have all never had a female athlete at the Olympics although Qatar has already announced it will send a three-woman team to London.

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Re: Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

Reply #2 - June 27, 2012, 07:59 AM

They will be violating Chapter 007 verse 420 if they sent women to the Olympics ! Tongue

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored !- Aldous Huxley

Re: Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

Reply #4 - June 27, 2012, 10:11 AM

Arf.

What a droll minx you are, Cheetah.

Re: Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

Reply #6 - June 27, 2012, 01:14 PM

He's no friend to the friendless
And he's the mother of grief
There's only sorrow for tomorrow
Surely life is too brief

Re: Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

Reply #8 - July 03, 2012, 03:40 AM

why is it that if a woman does well... she must be a guy..
so the olympics, london, and women.. this thread fit the criteria...
some women athletes like Caster Semenya, from south africa are being investigated for being too masculine ...

Since women began competing in the Olympics in 1900, their femininity, or lack thereof, has inspired the creation of gender verification tests.
In the 1960s, female athletes had to walk nude in front of a panel of experts who assessed their sexual credentials.

The so-called “naked parades” were abandoned and gender verification was eventually done using chromosome tests, until the IOC called for their discontinuation in the late ’90s, saying the tests constituted an invasion of privacy.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/london2012/article/1205025--olympics-struggle-with-policing-femininity?bn=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV9vdUjuWxc

Re: Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

Reply #10 - July 15, 2012, 06:01 AM

it would be cool if one of the women wins an event - and then as a celebration takes the hijab off and slams it to the ground and then just stands there in a statuesque pose with her hands on her hips. could happen cool2

and then we londoners grant her asylum. hehe

''we are morally and philisophically in the best position to win the league'' - Arsene Wenger

Re: Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

Reply #12 - July 16, 2012, 04:28 PM

If a Saudi woman wins a medal would it have to be cut into quarters?

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"

Re: Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

Reply #14 - July 17, 2012, 08:11 PM

So hypothetically if the olympics were to add car racing in as a sport women in saudi would be allowed to drive too ?

In my opinion a life without curiosity is not a life worth living

Re: Saudi Arabia to allow women to compete in 2012 Olympics

Reply #16 - August 31, 2012, 09:21 AM

And yet there are several all male paralympic teams...

When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

A.A. Milne,

"We cannot slaughter each other out of the human impasse"

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