Saturday, 12 May 2012

Saudi Arabia Bans Women From 2012 Olympics

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has yet again forbidden women from taking part in the Olympic Games. Should the all-male team be allowed to participate in the games while their female counterparts are vetoed?

Women have the every right to participate in any sport, there is no religious ban against them running or swimming or riding a horse. The misogynistic view is that women should stay in the home and never leave, never mind participate in any sporting events.

The Saudi Arabian government provides physical education in its state schools for boys and allows all male gyms but the facilities for women are non existent. There are over one hundred sports clubs in Saudi Arabia and not one of them has a female team of any kind participating in any sport.

Saudi women have no real opportunity to partake in exercise outside of the home. They are discriminated against in many aspects of life. Dressing in black from head to toe stops the sunlight from getting to the skin and rickets is becoming a major disease for these women.

The International Olympic Committee needs to send a clear message to the Saudi Olympic Committee president Prince Nawaf bin Faisal. He has said he was “not endorsing” female participation in London as part of the official delegation.

What right does this man have to tell any women that she cannot join in this world event? Who is he to take away their human rights? Nowhere in the Quran does God say women are forbidden from taking part in a sport so why is this man speaking for God?

In 1999 Afghanistan was banned from the games as it too prohibited women from participating in the games. Qatar and Brunei have also banned female athletes from the Olympic Games and will send female athletes for the first time this year.

The rules of the Olympic Games say that no one should be discriminated against because of race, sex or ability. The Olympic Charter says:

"Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

Despite the fact the Olympic Games wastes a lot of money, is not really beneficial to the planet and that it has caused many problems for Londoners*, everyone has the right to contribute if they wish.

*(Tenants are being forced to leave their homes so that greedy landlords can rent the property to visitors of the games for thousands of pounds. New contracts stipulate the tenant must leave the property during the games.)

Prince Nawaf is a member of the I.O.C. and told a news conference in Jeddah: "We are not endorsing any Saudi female participation at the moment in the Olympics or other international championships. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of women who practise sports, but in private."

Can you just imagine how many female athletes/housewives in Saudi Arabia are practicing their sport in their own back yards? How many laps around the garden would it take to run a mile? How far could they throw a javelin in the high walled yard? High jump over the washing line and a one hundred meter dash to the well and back would earn a medal? Watch out for the shot putt!

Prince Nawaf and men like him deserves a gold medal for corrupting Islam and discriminating against women. The Saudi all-male team should be banned from participating in the games or else made to run in full burka!

Saudi Arabia should be bought to task and banned from all Olympic games until they allow female participation.

We all know nothing will be done to stop this discrimination against women. Saudi Arabia will still be allowed to attend and it will make the whole Olympic Games Charter a mockery. If the I.O.C. does not ban Saudi Arabia’s all male team from participating, it too will be guilty of discriminating against women.

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