Saudi Arabia to open up football stadiums to women

Women in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to attend football matches for the first time in the conservative Gulf state, with the launch of newly-designed stadiums.

Officials in the kingdom said women will be able to watch matches at the Jeddah stadium after specially constructed private cabins and balconies are completed in 2014, local media reported.

“Sources close the stadium said more than 15 percent of the facility will be allocated for families when the facility is fully completed in 2014,” the Arabic daily Al Sharq said, quoting unnamed sources.

“Besides families, female journalists and photographers will also be admitted into the stadium and will be allocated exclusive places away from male journalists so they can cover local and international events,” it added.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, applies the austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam. Liberal activists have long called for greater rights for women who cannot travel or work without the written permission of a male relative. The oil rich Gulf state also bans women from driving.

While the ruling Al Saud family has always maintained a close relationship with the ultra conservative Wahhabi clerics, the government is pushing for reforms that give women more rights.

King Abdullah in September announced a “cautious reform” in which he gave women the right to vote and stand for election in future local elections and to join the advisory Shura council.

“Because we refuse to marginalise women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama [clerics] and others … to involve women in the Shura council as members, starting from the next term,” he said in a speech.

Saudi clerics were reportedly upset they were not consulted about the move prior to the announcement. “I wish the king did not say that he consulted senior clerics... When I heard the speech and what was said about consultation, without a doubt I had no knowledge of it before hearing the king's speech,” Sheikh Saleh Al Lohaidan, one of the kingdom’s most senior clerics said in October.