Saudi Arabia: No female athletes at London 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/sports/olympics/olympic-ban-on-saudi-arabia-is-urged-over-lack-of-female-athletes.html

So, do you think SA should be kept out of the Olympics unless they allow females ?

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Reply 1

Snagprophet

Dunno, they're going to have to catch up with the civilised world one of these days. Maybe this will be an incentive to not be backward.

Reply 2

344302

They dont let women take part in the olympics?! Wow.

Reply 3

bob247

There's no ban... Because of cultural restrictions their woman aren't good enough to compete in the olympics, that's all. Can't have positive discrimination can we? So just let them be...

Reply 4

Politricks

Original post by Veale

I'm not surprised.
Apparently letting women drive and play sports would take the "virginity" (Euphemism for backwardness) away from the country... :facepalm2:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 5

Indo-Chinese Food

Original post by bob247

There's no ban... Because of cultural restrictions their woman aren't good enough to compete in the olympics, that's all. Can't have positive discrimination can we? So just let them be...

Its nothing to do with "their woman aren't good enough to compete in the olympics" The olympics was setup with a mind that every country would send their athletes - there are lots of countires athletes in certain disciplines that arnt great - but they still come that is the spirit of Olympics. The spirt is not " we ban our women from international competition" Aparthied South africa was banned form various international sports because they wouldnt allow black africans to compete for their country - whats the difference here?

Reply 6

Snagprophet

Although in theory, if no Saudi women wishes to be an athlete then it's not like you can force a team that doesn't want to compete.

Reply 7

cl_steele

why should they be banned for this? whilst we may not agree with it it is their culture and who are we to tell them what to do?

Reply 8

Indo-Chinese Food

Original post by Snagprophet

Although in theory, if no Saudi women wishes to be an athlete then it's not like you can force a team that doesn't want to compete.

saudi has female athletes lke female riders- according to that link , jus theyre not allowed in international competition for SA i reckon. I doubt certainly that the would actually ever allow a female international runner (unless they covered he in some sort of running burkha?)

Reply 9

jasond567

This is so wrong, i assume the saudi government don't want them to see what freedom actualy is...

Reply 10

laughylolly

Go live in Saudi for a couple of years. It really isn't as bad as people think it is. I would know, I lived there for three years and have lived in other middle eastern countries. Yeah it's more conservative than Qatar/Bahrain/UAE but you can't compare it to a Taliban village etc. Unless you've actually been there and stayed there for a reasonable amount of time I wouldn't go make assumptions about a place.

Reply 11

Phantom Lord

Original post by laughylolly

Whereabouts were you when you were there?

Reply 12

laughylolly

Original post by AkaJetson

Whereabouts were you when you were there?

I lived in Al Khobar/Dhahran in the Eastern province. Also visited Riyadh a few times whilst I was there.

Reply 13

Clumsy_Chemist

Saudi Arabia is a deeply conservative country. We might not like the way women are treated as second class citizens there, but there isn't a thing we can do about it. The vast majority of the country's men want things to stay the way they are and we have no way of imposing liberal values on Saudi culture.

Reply 14

Clumsy_Chemist

Original post by jasond567

This is so wrong, i assume the saudi government don't want them to see what freedom actualy is...

It's wrong by western morals but not to Saudi morals. Women there can't even drive cars.

Reply 15

laughylolly

To be honest Riyadh is a lot more conservative than the rest of the country. I lived in the Eastern Province and it's not so bad there. I think it's not so bad in Jeddah either (from what I've heard from friends that lived there).

It's the same with the UAE. Some parts of the UAE are actually quite conservative then you have Dubai which is probably the least conservative place in the gulf.

Reply 16

navarre

Original post by Clumsy_Chemist

Of course. Who are we to judge? What, just because we value equality, human rights and freedom, are we silly enough to think that we should look down on Saudi culture? I mean, just because the treatment of women in their culture is disgusting, immoral and evil, does that necessarily make it wrong? I mean, it's cultural, so hey, let's not judge!

Awful country.

Original post by Ferdowsi

Awful country.

Just like any other country in the area, apart from Israel.

Reply 19

crazycake93

Original post by Politricks

I'm not surprised.
Apparently letting women drive and play sports is taking the "virginity" (I assume it's euphemism in Saudi for ... turning your back on backwardness) away from the country... :facepalm2: