An interesting pair of articles caught my eye this morning. One is an editorial from The Washington Post on the shame of Saudi Arabia not having women in its Olympic delegation of athletes. The other is a commentary on the issue in Saudi Gazette that laments that the West is beating on Saudi Arabia once again.
The editorial from The Washington Post is pretty much what one would expect. It points out that the lack of female athletes puts the Kingdom in violation of two Principles of the Olympics. As a result, the paper suggests, the Saudis should not be permitted to take part in the 2012 Olympics in London.
The piece from Saudi Gazette is interesting in that the writer, Sabria S. Jawhar, seems a tad thin-skinned, over-defensive and slightly logic-impaired. She complains, for instance, that the criticism is unfair because no Saudi woman would likely qualify for the Olympics in the first place.
To quote Homer Simpson, ‘Doh!’
Saudi women are not permitted to take part in organized athletics once they get beyond grade school. How, pray tell, might they develop the athletic skills needed to compete in the Olympics?
The writer does believe that Saudi women should take part in the Olympics—if they’re modestly dressed, of course—but wishes the West would stop picking on Saudis. She lays pretty flamboyant allegations about drug abuse by Olympic athletes and suggests that the West put its own house in order before it criticizes the Kingdom.
The problem of Saudi women being shut out of athletics is a problem worthy of international attention. Saudi attitudes and practice put the country well outside the norms of 21st C. behavior, well outside the norms of basic human rights. Regardless of what problems may prevail in the West, the glaring example of Saudi Arabia’s lack of concern about women is fair game for criticism.
Saudi Arabia, along with Brunei, are the only countries in the world to not send female athletes to the Olympics. Other Islamic countries—including theocratic Iran—seem to have found a way to reconcile modesty with athletics. It’s time for Saudi Arabic to get with it.
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August:20:2008 - 11:39
I think you missed the point of her sarcasm. Seems that she was poking fun at lazy Saudi women including herself. That hardly makes her thin-skinned. She also is on the record in previous articles supporting physical education for girls. Her single sentence about athletes on drugs doesn’t rise to the level of a flamboyant allegation. A look at the Marion Jones scandal appears to justify her statement. I think her point, because she makes it in her other articles as well, is that Saudis will come around but there is a natural inclination to hunker down when the usual Western hectoring begins.
August:20:2008 - 11:39
It is indeed possible that I misread the piece.
I was definitely focusing on the current Olympics when I reacted to that line. There have been a few expulsions this time around, but very few.
I am in total agreement that hectoring from abroad is generally counterproductive.
August:20:2008 - 11:39
I liked Jawhars piece, it was funny, and I agree: both in that I think the emphasis on Saudi not having female athletes in the Olympics now, and on first needing to have female athletes of the nesseccary level to stand a chance at the Olympics. It would not be in the interest of Saudi women to compete and be wiped out.
And there are far more important women’s issues for the western media to harp on.