The head of the Saudi Football Federation, Ahmed Eid Alharbi, recently announced that Saudi Arabia will create separate sections for women inside sports stadiums so that they can attend soccer matches, according to a report in the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News on Monday.
Economic considerations may be part of the reasoning behind the decision, as it is estimated that the new sections in the stadiums will increase capacity by 15 percent.
Women in Saudi Arabia are under many restrictions, such as being barred from driving, but last month women were given the right to ride bikes and motorcycles on the condition that they are dressed properly and are accompanied by a male relative. In the 2012 Olympics, the country allowed women to participate for the first time.
In an apparent expression of resistance to reforms in the status of women, the Saudi Grand Mufti said allowing women to drive would lead to more accidents and is not in their best interests, according to a post by Ahmed Al Omran on his Riyadh Bureau blog quoting local news website An7a.
“Women driving would lead to more accidents. When women are in danger, they don’t know how to act. How are they going to deal with accidents?” said Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Alsheikh.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Princess Ameerah al-Taweel, said during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Jordan that advancing women’s rights in Saudi Arabia is being held back because of conservative men.
“The most daunting challenge is not only the legislation but it is the concept, the mentality [of Saudis], because we know our society is very conservative and is very private and it’s very difficult to change concepts in Saudi Arabia to support women in the workplace or to have a larger contribution [in society],” the princess said. She added that many conservative men do not want women to work because they want to maintain the dignity of these women, but she rejected this reasoning.
“I think the main reason is fear from women and not for women, because they are afraid of women. We know that women are stronger than men in our society because they’re a minority and the minority usually wants to prove itself,” said Taweel, noting that 85% of Saudi Arabia’s unemployed are women.
