Saudi Arabia To Let Women Into Sports Stadiums In 2018

Saudi Arabia has just reached a major social justice milestone: beginning in early 2018, women will be allowed to enter sports stadiums.

Saudi Arabia women’s rights news

The move comes one month after the predominantly Sunni Muslim Middle Eastern country — known for limiting women’s rights in many public areas — allowed women to drive. It is the only nation in the world to have had such a ban.

Arenas in three major Saudi cities — Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh — will be set up to accommodate families, said a statement from the nation’s General Sports Authority.

The three stadiums are called King Fahd Stadium, King Abdullah Sport City and Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd Stadium. The stadiums are home to six teams in the Saudi Professional League — the top division — and two of the three stadiums included have the highest seating capacity in the kingdom.

Under Saudi Arabian law, women cannot marry, divorce, travel, get a job or have elective surgery without permission from their male guardians. They are also forbidden from freely interacting with members of the opposite sex, and are required to wear a full-length black abaya in public.

However, the two latest pro-women laws are part of 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious reforms, as laid out in his “vision for 2030” plan.

At an investment conference last week in Riyadh, Salman promised the kingdom would destroy “extremist ideologies” and instead veer towards “a more moderate Islam.”

“We want to lead normal lives, lives where our religion and our traditions translate into tolerance, so that we coexist with the world and become part of the development of the world,” he said.

For the first time ever in September, women were allowed to enter King Fahd Stadium for a celebration commemorating the kingdom’s 87th anniversary. They were seated in a specific section for families. The move drew both support and strong criticism, the latter from conservatives.

It was also revealed on Monday that Saudi Arabia plans to extract uranium domestically as part of its nuclear power program, a move designed to increase self-sufficiency in producing atomic fuel.

JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – SEPTEMBER 05: A general view of the stadium prior to the FIFA World Cup qualifier match between Saudi Arabia and Japan at the King Abdullah Sports City on September 5, 2017 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Kaz Photography/Getty Images)