By Hala Al-Qahtani
WE live in a world full of contradictions and some people think there is nothing wrong in adding one more contradiction — participation of women in Olympics. It’s strange that we denounce that addition while ignoring the fact that the world around us is replete with its colors and forms.
The beginning was in 2012 when the Saudi Olympic Committee ignored the fact that women in the country were fighting a battle to win the right to study sports in government schools. As a result, education and sports sectors became the butt of criticism in social media websites.
There were continuous demands for opening sports clubs for women. Women groups put pressure on the royal court to achieve this objective. At the same time, the committee succeeded in sending two Saudi women to London Olympics despite its failure to provide them with good training required to shine in such a major international event.
A 19-year-old girl participated in the 800 meter race in London. She reached the finishing point in the last group of athletes amid big applause from spectators. The second girl, aged 16, participated in judo to be defeated by a Puerto Rican woman in the first round. The poor performance of the two was expected.
People participate in Olympics after years of training and continuous preparation, which begins in the early school years. During this period prospective Olympic participants will be given training to develop their skills in a professional way to compete with international sportsmen and women.
Saudi sports authorities as well as sportsmen and women were not bothered about those failures in London because they were more concerned about Saudi participation in the global event. The Olympic Committee’s charter insists that at least one woman should participate from every member country and if any country fails to do that it would be expelled from the games.
This shows that the road to Olympics should pass by women, whose competence has been acknowledged by the world. In order to get entry into Olympics we have pretended that we have professional women players and athletes, although we give little importance to athletics, archery and swimming. They don’t receive any financial support like football clubs, which organize expensive matches in London for businessmen and top executives to watch during summer vacation.
After the experience at 2012 London Olympics, Saudi sports authorities did not make any move to train women to participate in any of the 26 Olympic games, including archery and table tennis, before the opening of Rio Olympics in Brazil. This indicates that they have not taken women’s participation in Olympics seriously. Their focus was always on football and football alone.
I am not against participation of women in any sports, which is a public right and everybody should be given that right. I am against misusing it by some people to realize their vested interests and against the culture of contradiction where women are denied their rights.
We know that women are treated as immature individuals who are not allowed to complete official procedures at government departments except in the presence of a male guardian or after receiving his written approval, thus becoming subservient to men. We are totally against exploitation of women, whatever the motives behind it.
We demand that all intelligent and matured individuals including women should be dealt with equally without any discrimination while enjoying their full freedom.
Before concluding this article, I would like to commend the Saudi women who participated in Rio Olympics braving many challenges. I also wanted to commend their families for providing them with necessary support. Our sportswomen deserve special thanks and appreciation for their presence in the Olympics as it saved Saudi Arabia for a second time from being expelled from the international event.
As the government has given utmost importance to sports, considering its influence and international position, I would like to propose that the Saudi Olympic Committee and Sports Authority introduce special empowerment programs to help women obtain their deserved position and rights. This would encourage other government sectors to help women get their civil rights without the need to put pressure on them by sending hundreds of telegrams or millions of grievance messages.
