Saudis isolated as Qatar announces it’s to send female athletes to Olympics

http://www.muslimnews.co.uk

Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee (SAOC), President, Prince Nawaf bin Faisal said that they would again not any female competitors to London 2012 Qatar’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) has announced that it will send at least three female athletes to the London 2012 Olympic Games, and Brunei has indicated that 400-metre-runner Maziah Mahusin could be selected for their team, the first time either country has sent female athletes to the Olympics. Qatar’s announcement has intensified calls for Saudi Arabia to be kicked out of this summer’s games after its officials announced they will not prevent female citizens from competing in the Olympics but it will not officially endorse them either. Qatar’s NOC revealed on April 8 that swimmers Wafa Arakji and Noor Al-Malki as well as air rifle shooter Bahia Al-Hamad, 19, will be sent to the games. Al-Hamad won a silver medal at the Arab Championships last month to add to the three gold medals and two silver she won at the 2011 Arab Games in Doha. All three have been granted quota places rather than qualifying automatically, arranged by the world governing bodies and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The decision to send Qatari female athletes to the Olympics for the first time since they made their debut at Los Angeles in 1984 will help Doha’s campaign to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, where they are facing rivals Baku, Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo. “We are absolutely delighted that we have been able to secure another place for one of our young female athletes at London 2012,” Qatar Olympic Committee General Secretary, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, said in a statement. “We are grateful to the IOC for their support in helping make this happen.” “Athletes like Bahia, Nada and Noor will also provide inspiration to the next generation of female Qatari sports,” he added. The announcement came just four days after Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee (SAOC) President, Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, said that they would again not send any female competitors to London 2012. Speaking at a press conference in Jeddah, the Prince said, “Female sports activity has not existed [in the kingdom] and there is no move thereto in this regard. At present, we are not embracing any female Saudi participation in the Olympics or other international championships.” The Prince also said recently that Saudi women living and training abroad may represent the kingdom and could participate but only if they are accompanied by a male guardian and are modestly dressed. Prince Nawaf acknowledged there was a growing demand for sport among Saudi women. “There are now hundreds or thousands who practice sports but in a private way and without any relationship to the General Presidency of Youth Welfare,” he said. A spokesperson for the IOC told The Muslim News they are “still in discussion and working to ensure the participation of Saudi women at the Games in London.” Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) Middle East and North Africa Division, Christoph Wilcke, told The Muslim News the issue is “more complicated than just the participation or non-participation” of Saudi women at the games. In a February report titled Steps of the Devil’: Denial of Women’s and Girls’ Rights to Sport in Saudi Arabia HRW documented the systematic discrimination against women in sport in Saudi Arabia, including their exclusion from the 153 sports clubs regulated by Nawaf’s ministry, the SAOC and the 29 national sporting federations, which are also overseen by Nawaf in his capacity as head of the NOC. Wilcke called on the IOC to abandon its “minimalist approach that is not going to help bring real change…if the IOC keeps talking forever it’s saying we have no serious interest in protecting the Olympic Charter based on fairness and justice.” “The IOC can say lets see what we can do to help” adding that there is existing working models of other conservative Muslim countries where men and women are segregated but both are provided access with facilities. He added that HRW would like to see more than “a symbolic gesture or just a token” of allowing women living and training outside of the kingdom to participate in the games “if Huda [Abdullmoheen] or Manaal [Sari], (expats) won a medal and the women in Saudi Arabia felt inspired they could not do the same; they can not train in Saudi Arabia.”