Group calls on Saudis to end female discrimination

16.02.2012

A human rights group called on the International Olympic Committee to require that Saudi Arabia's participation in Olympic sporting events, including the upcoming London Games, be contingent upon the Arab country allowing girls and women to play competitive sports.

Human Rights Watch issued a report Wednesday saying that Saudi Arabia is violating the IOC charter's pledge of equality. The country has never sent a woman to compete in the Olympics.

Neither has Brunei or Qatar, although Qatar said last summer it hopes to send up to four female athletes to the 2012 Games.

In interviews with Saudi women and international sporting officials, the group found that Saudi government restrictions put sports beyond the reach of almost all women in the Gulf nation. The few women who play sports are limited to exercising at home or at expensive gyms, or playing in segregated underground leagues.

Within a year, the group wants Saudi Arabia to start introducing physical education for girls in all schools, and allocate money for women's sports in the youth ministry, the Saudi national Olympic committee and Saudi sports federations. Human Rights Watch says such steps are necessary to prove the Saudis' efforts to end discrimination against women in sports and allow the country to be represented in Olympic events.

"It's not that Saudi Arabia doesn't have the money to do this or women who want to," said Christoph Wilcke, a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division who authored the 51-page report titled "Steps of the Devil." "We have listened to Saudi promises for decades. This is not good enough."

The report's name comes from the comments of some Saudi government clerics who oppose sport as "steps of the devil" that would lead women to un-Islamic behavior and moral corruption.

The IOC has previously criticized the Saudis for failing to send women athletes to the Olympics. However, according to Human Rights Watch, the IOC hasn't attached any conditions to the nation's participation in the games.

The IOC charter states that sports are a right for everyone and bans discrimination in practicing sports on the basis of gender.

"The IOC strives to ensure the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement are universal and non-discriminatory, in line with the Olympic Charter and our values of respect, friendship and excellence," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said in a statement.

"NOCs (national Olympic committees) are encouraged to uphold that spirit in their delegations. The IOC does not give ultimatums nor deadlines but rather believes that a lot can be achieved through dialogue."

A senior sports official in Saudi Arabia told The Associated Press that the rulers in the kingdom are not opposed to women's participation in sports, but changing mindsets in the deeply conservative Muslim country that is the cradle of Islam is hard work that takes a lot of time.

"We are supporting women here to be in sports but that means fighting deeply entrenched traditions in Saudi Arabia," the official said in a phone interview Wednesday.

"We are trying to overcome them and we are seeking support from the IOC to have a woman in our delegation at the London Games," the official added. He spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Wilcke said the Saudis have no women currently prepared for Olympic-level competition; however, he urged the government to nominate women for slots available in track and field, where the competitors don't have to be top-level. There are slots available in swimming, but Wilcke said the Saudis would not tolerate women wearing swimsuits in public.

He noted that equestrian Dalma Rushdi Malhas attracted widespread attention in Saudi Arabia after winning a bronze medal in show jumping in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games. Human Rights Watch said Malhas may be invited to participate in the London Games by an international sports federation, and it said the Saudi national Olympic committee has indicated it won't interfere with a female athlete attending after being invited.

Adams said the IOC has been in regular contact with national Olympic committees of Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar.

"As a result of fruitful discussions, the three NOCs included women in their delegations competing at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore last summer," he said, citing Malhas. "We are very pleased with this evolution, which can only been seen as a promising development leading towards London 2012."

Sarah Kureshi, an American-born Muslim with Pakistani parents, supports allowing Saudi women to have equal participation in sports, whether on a competitive or recreational level.

A former distance runner at the University of Central Florida, Kureshi was the first U.S. woman to compete in the Islamic Women's Games in Iran in 2005. She wore pants when she ran, in adherence to her religious beliefs.

"They didn't understand how I could be American and Muslim at the same time. It was another contradiction to people," said Kureshi, who chose not to compete in a traditional headscarf or long sleeves.

"It was really powerful to have that opportunity to go and educate them. They're not mutually exclusive. That was the question I got from everybody in terms of foreign policy in our country. I was able to say as an American I don't have to agree with all the foreign policy in my country. This country allows me to practice my religion."

Kureshi, a family practice doctor who teaches at Georgetown University, said she knows people working in Saudi Arabia who say that strides are being made.