Breaking free: Ban on sports for girls in public schools lifted in Saudi Arabia
Saudi girls schools will now offer physical education program in accordance with Islamic law"
(Web Desk) – Just a day into Saudi Arabia’s announcement of lifting ban on sports for girls in public schools, Human Rights Watch praises the decision and calls it a ‘vital step forward.’
HRW also indicates that there are still some serious hurdles, including the country’s male guardianship system that prevents women from fully accessing the education and health benefits of sports exercise.
Saudi Arabia published this announcement on its Education Ministry website on July 11. According to the statement, Saudi girls’ schools will offer physical education program beginning in fall 2017 “in accordance with Islamic law standards” and will also be scaled up “according to the possibilities available in each school”. These will include sports halls and competent women instructors.
It was also stated that the Ministry made the decision to accomplish the goals setup for the Vision 2030, which is an initiative carried out by the government for economic and developmental growth.
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The female basketball team of Jeddah United warm up in Jordan. Photo courtesy: Reuters
While this news has been praised by many, the decision was initially approved first by the Saudi Shura Council - a government advisory body - in 2014. This was delayed due to the opposition from the clerics who called it “Westernisation”.
Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch said in her statement, “This overdue reform is absolutely crucial for Saudi girls, who have been denied their basic human right to health through exercise, joining teams and the long-term health, economic, and education benefits of sports.”
Graffiti art commemorating Saudi track and field Olympian Sarah Attar’s run into the history books as one of the first two Saudi women to participate in the Olympics. Photo courtesy:Shaweesh and Gharem Studio
She also said that “This important step forward can advance human rights and health for women despite the daunting legal hurdles that remain in the country.”
One Saudi women’s rights activist told Human Rights Watch that she welcomed the announcement that Saudi Arabia will offer physical education in government schools, but warned that it did not offer details of how it will be carried out. She said that no girls’ public school in Saudi Arabia currently has sports infrastructure and there are few female sports instructors. In addition, the statement did not say whether physical education will be mandatory for girls, or if schools will require girls to get parental permission to enroll in P.E. classes.
“I’m very happy with the issue of the decree and this is a historic day for all Saudi girls in the Kingdom,” Lina Almaeena, a Shura Council member who has worked for over 10 years to implement sports for girls in both public and private schools, told Saudi news website Arab News.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and the Saudi head of the women‘s section at the general authority for sports, Princess Reema Bint Bandar al-Saud, chat with Saudi girls during a basketball class in Riyadh. Photo courtesy: REUTERS
“We don’t have the logistics, location or setting and a decree such as this is not as easy as many believe it is… [but] I’m an optimist and rather than looking back, we should all look forward.”
The government stated that only 13 percent of Saudis currently exercise at least once a week, which to their dismay is partly to blame for high levels of obesity.
