Women’s gyms lay bare limits of Saudi reforms
A Saudi decision to license within weeks the kingdom’s first
women-only gyms constitutes progress in a country in which women’s rights are
severely curtailed. It also lays bare the limitations of Deputy Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman’s plan for social and economic reforms that would rationalize
and diversify the kingdom’s economy.
Restrictions on what activities the gyms will be allowed to
offer reflects the power of an ultra-conservative religious establishment and
segment of society critical of the long overdue reforms that became inevitable as
a result of sharply reduced oil revenues and the need to enhance Saudi
competitivity in a 21st knowledge-driven global economy.
At least two years in the making, the licensing rules announced
by Princess Reema bin Bandar, vice president for women’s affairs of the General
Authority of Sports, the kingdom’s sports czar, focus on Prince Mohammed’s plans
laid out in a document entitled Vision
2030. The plans involve streamlining government expenditure, including public
health costs in a country that boasts one of the world’s highest rates of
obesity and diabetes.
“It is not my role to convince the society, but my role is
limited to opening the doors for our girls to live a healthy lifestyle away
from diseases that result from obesity and lack of movement,” Princess Reema
said in announcing the licensing.
Princess Reema, the kingdom’s first ever women’s sports
official, hopes to open gyms in every district and neighbourhood in the kingdom.
The move constitutes progress in a country that has yet to introduce sports in
public girl’s schools and has no public facilities for women’s sports.
Commercially run gyms catering primarily to upper and upper
middle class women as well as privately organized women’s sports teams have
been operating in the kingdom in a legal nether land for several years.
Princess Reema indicated that gyms would be licensed to
focus on activities such as swimming, running and bodybuilding but not for
sports such as soccer volleyball, basketball and tennis.
The licensing rules are in line with a
policy articulated in 2014 by Mohammed al-Mishal, the secretary-general of
Saudi Arabia's Olympic Committee. At the time, Mr. Al-Mishal, responding to
pressure by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said women would only be
allowed to compete in disciplines that were "accepted culturally and
religiously in Saudi Arabia" and conform to a literal interpretation of
the Qur’an. Mr. Al-Mishal identified such sports as equestrian, fencing,
shooting, and archery.
They are also in line with unrealistic hopes abandoned
several years ago to emphasize individual rather than team sports in a men’s
only national sports plan. The idea to de-emphasize team sports was intended to
limit the potential of soccer becoming a venue of anti-government protest as it
had in Egypt and elsewhere during the 2011 popular Arab revolts. It proved
unrealistic given that Saudi Arabia, like most nations in the region, is
soccer-crazy. Saudi Arabia announced earlier this month that it would privatize
five of the kingdom’s top soccer clubs.
Women’s sports is one litmus test of Saudi Arabia’s ability
to tackle its social, political and economic challenges head on and move
forward with Prince Mohammed’s outline of how the government hopes to diversify
the economy, streamline its bloated bureaucracy and safeguard the Al Saud’s
grip on power.
Vision 2030 identifies sports “as a mainstay of a healthy
and balanced lifestyle and promises “to encourage widespread and regular
participation in sports and athletic activities.”
The licensing of women’s gyms is occurring even though
Vision 2030 made no reference to facilities for women. The document also failed
to even implicitly address demands by the IOC and human rights groups that
women be allowed to compete freely in all athletic disciplines rather than only
ones mentioned in the Qur’an.
The Washington-based Institute of Gulf Affairs, headed by
Saudi dissident Ali al-Ahmed, reported
in 2014 that up to 74 percent of adults and 40 percent of children are believed
to be overweight or obese.
“Women in Saudi Arabia are being killed softly by their
government. Not by public executions or brutal rapes and beatings, but by
day-to-day restrictions imposed on them by their government… It must be
understood that restrictions on women sports and physical activity have nothing
to do with culture or religion, but rather, are fuelled by the ruling elite as
a means to control the population. As long as the Saudi government continues to
claim that such bans are a result of cultural and personal practices, women
will continue to suffer a decline in physical and mental health, as well as
their social, economic and political status,” the report asserted.
It said that the restrictions amounted to “an almost
completely sedentary lifestyle forced on women by the government through a de
facto ban on physical education and sports participation for women that stems
from the Wahhabi imperative of ‘keeping women unseen.’”
Saudi media
have reported that lack of exposure to sun had led to vitamin D deficiency
among 80
percent of Saudi women.
A Human Rights Watch report concluded
last year that “inside Saudi Arabia, widespread discrimination still hampers
access to sports for Saudi women and girls, including in public education.”
The group noted that Saudi women were denied access to state
sports infrastructure and barred from participating in national tournaments and
state-organized sports leagues as well as attending men’s national team matches
as spectators. Women have difficulty accessing the 150 clubs that are regulated
by the General Authority, which organizes tournaments only for men.
Human Rights Watch called on the Saudi government to
demonstrate its sincerity by making physical education for girls’ mandatory in
all state schools; ensuring that women can train to teach physical education in
schools; establishing sports federations for women and allows them to compete
domestically and internationally; supporting women who want to compete in
international sporting competitions on an equal footing with men; and allowing
women to attend sporting events involving men’s national teams.
“Saudi authorities need to address gender discrimination in
sports, not just because it is required by international human rights law, but
because it could have lasting benefits for the health and well-being of the
next generation of Saudi girls,” Human Rights Watch director of global
initiatives Minky Worden said at the time.
Dr. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies, co-director of the University of
Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent
World of Middle East Soccer blog, a book
with the same title, Comparative Political Transitions
between Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, co-authored with Dr.
Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario and a forthcoming book, Shifting
Sands, Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa
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