Saudi women throng stadium for first time
RIYADH: Hundreds of women thronged a sports stadium for the first time to mark Saudi Arabia’s national day on Saturday, celebrated across the conservative kingdom with a raucous display of concerts, folk dance and fireworks.
The presence of women at the King Fahd Stadium marks a departure from previous celebrations in the Gulf kingdom where they are barred from sports arenas by strict rules on public segregation of the sexes.
Women were allowed to enter the stadium, a previously maleonly venue used mostly for football matches, with their families and seated separately from single men to watch a musical show and a play on Saudi history.
“We hope that there will be no restrictions on our entrance to the stadium in the future,” Um Abdulrahman, a woman from the northwestern city of Tabuk, said.
“For many years, I have hoped that women will be given the same rights as men.”
As a swell of enthusiastic women cheering swept through the stadium, with a few wearing colourful wigs on top of their veils, some Saudi men on social media lauded their participation as a historic moment.
“Looks like women bought all the tickets!” one Saudi man quipped on Twitter.
Ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia has some of the world’s tightest restrictions on women and is the only country where they are not allowed to drive, despite ambitious government reforms aimed at boosting female employment.
Under the country’s guardianship system, a male family member must grant permission for a woman’s study, travel and other activities. AFP