RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – For the first time in Saudi Arabia, girls will be allowed to play sports in private schools, according to a decision announced on Saturday, the latest in a series of incremental changes aimed at slowly increasing women’s rights in the ultraconservative kingdom.

Saudi Arabia’s official press agency, SPA, reported that private girls’ schools are now allowed to hold sports activities in accordance with the rules of Shariah, or Islamic law. Students must adhere to “decent dress” codes and Saudi women teachers will be given priority in supervising the activities, according to the Education Ministry’s requirements.

Additional Photos

Female soccer team members practice at a secret location in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Education Ministry has allowed private girls’ schools to hold sports activities for students. The Associated Press

The decision makes sports once again a stage for the push to improve women’s rights, nearly a year after two Saudi female athletes made an unprecedented appearance at the Olympics.

“It’s about time,” said Aziza Youssef, a professor at King Saud University. “Everything is being held back in Saudi Arabia as far as women’s rights.”

Youssef said she sees the decision to allow sports for girls in private schools as part of package of wider reforms targeting women, but that continued restrictions on sports is a discrimination that negatively impacts women’s health.

Education Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Dakhini was quoted in SPA saying that the decision to allow girls to play sports in private schools “stems from the teachings of our religion, which allow women such activities in accordance with Shariah.”

The government had previously quietly tolerated physical education in some private schools, but there is no set curriculum.

The decision, which also orders private girls’ schools to provide appropriate places and equipment for sports, is a monumental step that will likely soon affect public schools and universities, which are also gender segregated, Youssef said.

Deputy Minister of Education for Women’s Affairs, Nora al-Fayez, was quoted in local press saying recently that there is a plan in place to expand sports education in public schools. It remains unclear if girls would have access to the same level of physical education as boys.

Sports for women in Saudi Arabia have been largely a pastime of elites who can afford expensive health club memberships. They are often attached to hospitals since women’s gyms were closed in 2010 on grounds they were unlicensed.

Saudi Arabia allowed two female athletes to compete in last summer’s Olympics only after the International Olympics Committee had put intense pressure on the kingdom to end its practice of sending only male teams to the games. Their participation was not shown on Saudi TV stations.

Women’s sports remain nearly an underground activity in the kingdom, which is home to Islam’s holiest site in Mecca.

Only the largest female university in the kingdom – Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman University – has a swimming pool, tennis court and exercise area for its students. No other university in Saudi Arabia has sports facilities for its female students and staff.

Women are also bound by strict rules when it comes to their attire, so they cannot, for example, be seen by men while jogging in sweat pants. Almost all women in Saudi Arabia cover their faces with a veil known as the “niqab,” and even foreigners are obliged to respect local culture and wear a loose black dress known as the “abaya.”

Female athletes cannot register for sports clubs or league competitions. They are banned from entering national trials, which makes it impossible for them to qualify for international competitions.

The government has turned a blind eye, though, to tournaments where all female teams play against one another.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is seen as pushing for these reforms. Other Saudi rulers have also quietly tried to modernize the country.

But the monarch is facing edicts from powerful Saudi clerics who are against all types of sporting activities for women.

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