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Inside the Middle East - Blog
August 5, 2008
A Sporting Chance For Saudi Women?
She's a one-woman civil rights movement in Saudi Arabia. Wajeha Al-Huwaider, who calls herself an activist, says she is fighting for women's rights in her country.

Al-Huwaider gained notoriety when she posted a video of herself driving a car in Saudi Arabia, openly breaking the ban on female drivers. Now, the 46-year-old mother-of-two is tackling another issue: women in sports.

Al-Huwaider this week posted a new video on Youtube, this one lamenting the fact that women can't play sports in public in Saudi Arabia. She is also asking officials to allow Saudi women to take part in the Olympic games and other international competitions.

"Women are treated like slaves," she tells me in a telephone interview from her home in Saudi Arabia. "I believe in my cause," she adds when I ask her if she's afraid of reprisals from the religious police or government authorities, "I have nothing to lose."

In 2006, Al-Huwaider was arrested when she stood on the Saudi side of the bridge linking the kingdom to Bahrain, holding up a sign that read "Give women their rights."

She says she has been arrested a total of three times.

"I don't know when they will attack me again," she says, "but lately authorities have been ignoring us. They're not talking to us."

Al-Huwaider, a graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., heads the Society for Defending Women's Rights (saudiwomenvoice.com,) a small group of about twenty members, speaking up for gender equality in Saudi Arabia.

As for Saudi women in competitive sports, "perhaps in London in 2012," she says.
I commend the author on her bravery. Every soccer player, especially women, need to see this. Ayesha, May She rest in Peace, would be proud.
Get real folks. This will never be. Isn't it a riot that we harped about the way women were treated in Afganistan before we invaded but yet the US never,ever says a word about life in Saudi Arabia for women. Itis the nost repressive regime in the world. It is now illegal for people to walk dogs in public because it might allow women and men to mingle. By the way, this is not a reflection on Islam. read the Koran....all the restrictions placed on women in Islamic nations is not mentioned or condoned in it....
ALL RESPECT FOR WAJEHA AL-HUWAIDER!!

Courageous Woman!

Aliona (Romania)
A simple but essential issue as sport is regarded as a trivial chalange for women in the middle east, that's why nobody talks about it ! raising this matter the way Al Huwaider did looks like the second egg of Collombus !
Keep up the high spirit...and lets go all to London 2012
@ Ann: All those restrictions are social ones and you can see them in other countries as well, in Romania for example (thanks God, here is a more relaxed situation!), they are just a little connected to religion.

Aliona
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