COUNCIL REJECTS PROPOSAL FOR FEMALE SPORTS COLLEGES

A proposal to establish sports education colleges for Saudi women has failed to win enough votes in the kingdom’s top advisory body. The proposal needed 76 out of 150 votes in the Shura Council, but fell three votes short. It called for the establishment of colleges that would train Saudi women in how to teach fitness and well-being. Lina Almaeena, one of the three council members who submitted the proposal, said 57 members voted against the measure, with the rest abstaining. Some of the kingdom’s ultraconservatives consider women’s exercise “immodest.”