Saudi Arabia’s women now allowed into stadiums to watch soccer

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi women were allowed into a sports stadium for the first time Friday to watch a soccer match between two local teams — though they were segregated in the stands from the male-only crowd with designated seating in the so-called “family section.”

And when the first goal was scored during the game, anew noise joined the ruckus in the stands: the sound of women cheering.

The move was the first of Saudi Arabia’s social reforms planned for this year to ease restrictions on women, spearheaded by the soccerobsessed but ultrarigid Islamic kingdom’s 32-yearold crown prince. The kingdom has also announced that starting in June women will be allowed to drive, lifting the world’s only ban on female drivers.

Saudi Arabia has long been one of the world’s most restrictive places for women, where a combination of religion, social custom and government regulation has dictated what they wear and barred them from driving, holding a range of jobs and travelin gas they wish.

More than just an incremental step toward greater rights, the presence of women in the sports stadium underscored a wider effort to integrate women in society and grant them more public visibility in a country where gender segregation is widely enforced and where most women cover their faces and hair with black veils and don loose-flowing black robes, knownas abayas.

The first stadium to open its doors to women was in the Red Sea city of Jiddah. The stadium in the capital, Riyadh, will open to women on Saturday, followed by the western city of Dammam on Thursday.

At the Jiddah stadium Friday, young Saudi women wearing bright orange vests over their abayas were deployed to help with the female crowds. “Welcome to Saudi families,” read a sign in Arabic erected across the section of the stadium reserved for women.

“It’s very festive and very wellorganized. A lot of people are just really happy to be here. I think there’s a lot of excitement when you walked in, especially among the children,” said Sarah Swick of the match between Saudi soccer teams Al-Ahli and AlBatin. (Al-Ahli trounced AlBatin 5-0, according to the Saudi Gazette.)

Ahead of the football game, there was another small sign of change: the country’s first car showroom dedicated to female customers was opened.