http://www.arabnews.com/?page=13§ion=0&article=102361&d=13&m=10&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Local%20Press
Thursday 11 October 2007 (30 Ramadan 1428)
Why This Illogical Aversion to Women
Ali Al-Moussa, Al-Watan
My friend Muhammad Al-Ajmy told me a very interesting story recently. He
took his two young daughters, 8 and 6, to the King Fahd International Stadium
in Riyadh two days earlier.
He wanted to watch the match between Al-Hilal and Najran. It is not like
Muhammad to attend live matches in stadiums; he simply wanted to kill routine
and entertain his young daughters with a different experience.
My friend didn't realize the terrible mistake he made until he reached
the entry gate to the stadium. He was told harshly that his daughters couldn't
enter the stadium. He argued that these were young girls who didn't have to
comply with the "No Women Allowed" rule of Saudi public stadiums. His pleas
fell on the indifferent ears of stadium security.
The stadium's manager, Salman Al-Namshan, came over and intervened. He
ended the dispute by offering my friend and his two girls some seating near his
corner of the stadium.
This story doesn't help rid people of the notion that there's an aversion
to women here. Forbidding two young girls into a public stadium (with 80,000
seats to watch a relatively unimportant match that didn't attract very many
people in the first place) increases the image problem.
"Do you not know there are people here who are working hard to shut down
kindergarten schools because they have young girls and boys together?" I asked
my friend.
Indeed, it seems that some people here oppose everything. They oppose the
idea of women teaching in elementary schools. They oppose teaching girls in the
first place. And they currently oppose the idea of teaching physical education
in girls' public schools.
Exacerbating the social opposition to such trivial matters are the rules
and regulations that ban women - and especially young girls - from public
stadiums. In the 21st century you'd think we would at least make a distinction
between a woman and a girl
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