Saudi female athletes challenge Muslim norms

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Behind concrete walls and out of sight of men, Saudi women wearing shorts and short-sleeve shirts meet three times a week to play soccer in an all-female club in Saudi Arabia's port city of Jeddah.

Cheering them on is Jeddah King's United coach and striker Reema Abdullah, who also is leading a campaign in the ultra-conservative Muslim country to allow women to participate in sports and compete internationally.

Saudi Arabia has never sent a woman to compete in the Olympics. Human rights groups say the country is violating the International Olympic Committee charter's pledge of equality.

In a report Wednesday, Human Rights Watch called on the IOC to require that Saudi Arabia's participation in the London Olympics be contingent upon the Arab country allowing all girls and women to play competitive sports.

Saudi Arabia's male athletes have so far qualified in several track and field and equestrian events for the London Games. There's a chance male athletes also will qualify in archery and they are hoping for a wild card invitation in shooting.

However, plans to send women to the Olympics remain wrapped in secrecy.

"We will watch the London Olympics and we will cheer for our men competing there, hoping that someday we can root for our women as well," Abdullah told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Jeddah.

"When Saudi women get a chance to compete for their country, they will raise the flag so high," the 33-year-old Abdullah said. "Women can achieve a lot, because we are very talented and we are crazy about sports."

Since Abdullah put together Saudi Arabia's first female soccer club in Jeddah in 2006, teams have popped up around the country, including in the capital, Riyadh, and in Dammam, the biggest city in the oil-rich eastern province.

In 2008, seven female teams played in the first ever national tournament as part a clandestine and segregated women's league. Abdullah's Jeddah King's United finished first.

Members of the team play not in a stadium but on what Abdullah describes as "a proper size football field with grass that is surrounded by a wall."

The current roster includes 35 women, as young as 13 and up to 35. Outside the segregated premises, the players wear long trousers, long-sleeved shirts and specially designed head scarves to cover their hair, Abdullah said.