Arab women in sport: 'There will be no more barriers for us'

From Saudi basketballers to Qatari shooters, a new exhibition celebrates Arab sportswomen in all their diversity. Huma Qureshi hears their inspiring stories.

Maysan Mamoun has a dream that one day she and all other Saudi women will be able to play sport openly.
"I don't think this will last forever," she says, referring to the restrictions in place on Saudi women, who are not even allowed inside sports clubs, let alone to play for them. "We are pioneers. We will open doors."
Mamoun is the co-captain of the Green Team, a women's basketball team in Saudi Arabia. The only way the team can play is in private - they practice in the back garden of their other captain, Maysan Al Sowayigh. Al Sowayigh persuaded her parents to convert the space into a court for her so that the team would have somewhere to play.

Mamoun is speaking directly into a camera, filmed by a French documentary maker, Marian Lacombe. The interview forms part of Hey'Ya (which translates as 'Let's Go'), a free exhibition in central London that celebrates Arab women in sport, from amateurs to Olympians.

The videos complement dramatic large-scale photographs of more than 50 Arab sportswomen taken by Marian's sister, the photographer Brigitte Lacombe.

The footage was taken long before Saudi eventually agreed to send two women to the Olympics and gives an insight into the determination of Saudi women fighting for the simple right to play sport, despite the discrimination they face.

The Green Team is trying to convince families to let their daughters train with them, but says it's not an easy task in a country where sport is banned for girls in public schools.

"There was a sense of frustration among some of the women," says Brigitte, who travelled with her sister to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Morocco to photograph and film the women. "But what is so remarkable is how they kept their focus. They will do what it takes to be able to participate in sport. I was humbled by their determination, smartness and dignity."

The Lacombe sisters were commissioned by the Qatar Museums Authority, which will be showing Hey'Ya in Doha next spring. Recently, Qatari authorities have been making an effort to prove to the International Olympics Committee that they are not discriminating or restricting women from participating in sports, as they prepare to bid for the 2024 Games. This year, Qatar is sending four women to the Olympics for the first time ever.

One of them is Noor Al Malki, a 17-year-old sprinter who is competing in the women's 100m. She has also been photographed and filmed for the exhibition. In one portrait, Al Malki is on the floor, stretching out in her sports gear, while in another, she poses side-on in the tight bandana she wears to cover her hair while running. In a video clip, Al Malki says she was too shy to run without her normal veil at first, but her brothers encouraged her. "They said just be strong."

Also featured in the exhibition are Hania Fouda, an Egyptian archer whose hands are painted with henna, and Feta Ahamada, an athlete from Comoros, a majority Muslim country off the coast of Mozambique who will also be competing in the women's 100m at the Olympics. Ahamada runs in a cropped athletic top and shorts. "If covering your body or your hair makes you feel comfortable, it's not a handicap," she says to the camera. "It's only sport. Everyone should do want they want."

Some of the women photographed are fully covered but most are not. "I want people to see the diversity of women in the Arab world. They are not all the same," says Lacombe, who spent seven months on the project.

Seventeen-year-old Reem Al Sharsani from Qatar missed out on an Olympics place this year in her sport, shooting, but has come to London for the start of the Games. She believes things are changing for young women of her generation; her older sister Yasmian plays golf and set up the Qatar Golf for Women club. Both were photographed by Lacombe.

"Before, women couldn't go out or do sports, but then everything changed when the Asian Games came to Qatar in 06. That's when women started realising it was possible to play too. Now I have a lot of support."
Yasmian, who wears a flowing black robe, agrees. "I'm so proud of all these women. I want to show the world we can do anything, even if we are covered. There will be no more barriers for us."

Jordan’s Queen Rania on Arab women

Many of the questions and stereotypes received had to do with women — specifically empowerment, violence, and honor crimes. Here’s a clip where Queen Rania discusses these issues.

Saudi women begin work in cosmetics shops

Six months after Saudi women were granted the right to work at lingerie stores, Saturday saw them achieve another first when they began work as saleswomen in cosmetic shops.

By implementing this decision, the Saudi ministry of labor hopes to open new employment opportunities for women.

Last year, Saudi King Abdullah had issued a resolution concerning women’s employment in stores ordered the withdrawal of all male employees from store premises within six months.

Hundreds of the ministry’s inspectors placed commercial stores under intensive surveillance to assess their situation and their commitment to the King’s directive.

While larger stores were able to implement the directives, smaller stores chose to remove the cosmetic sections from their premises.

The development assistant deputy minister of the ministry of labor, Fahd al-Takhifi, said “We sent clear instructions to the ministry of labor and business men to clarify the requirements needed for the future. We will not allow any man to sell lingerie or cosmetic products to women anymore,” he added.

Takhifi said it would take a few months to know how many women had benefitted from this resolution. “It is impossible to compel an employer to hire a definite number of female employees. Some stores will be working part-time and others will close their doors. But only women should work in these shops,” he said.
He said the labor offices will start their inspection tours on Sunday. “The conditions of implementation are strict; the number of women working in a section of a store including more than one department should not be less than three. The department where women work should be independent from other departments. It is wrong to just replace men with women employees, women’s departments should also be isolated,” he said.

Commitment and closure

Large perfume and cosmetics stores have committed to the directives without committing to the ministries conditions.

The manager of Bakshan Perfume Company in Al Waha Mall in Dammam, Jalal Mahdi Bashir, said they were working to implement the ruling, adding that they had “started hiring Saudi women. We hired one this morning and will be recruiting another one tomorrow in accordance to the new system.”

Small shops on the other hand have had to close their cosmetics and make-up departments because they were not able to meet the new resolution’s provisions. These shops’ income does not allow them to hire more staff.

The owner of Nahr Al Fayrouzi perfume shop in Dammam, Muhammad Ali, said: “We decided to close our cosmetic section because we cannot afford hiring women in this section; work is already slow and low in revenue.”

In the same context, owner of a small perfumery in Riyadh Hussein al-Shuweia said that he couldn’t hire Saudi women in the cosmetic section because he has a small shop that merely generates income. Thus, he preferred to close the cosmetic section and keep the perfume section. “With all due respect to the new resolution, I couldn’t commit to it. Many of my colleagues who own small shops did the same which will pave the way for megastores to monopolize the market.”

Strict conditions

The ministry of labor has set strict rules and conditions to guarantee the success of this venture, especially in light of the differences in the concept of multi-sections stores and the appropriate mechanism to change the stores’ conditions.

Last Saturday, the ministry issued a circular for all offices and businesses in which it gave clear guidelines on how to implement the resolution. For example, it is prohibited to hire men in lingerie and cosmetic shops and all employees should be Saudi women. The store owner should only allow access for families or women provided that women accessories sections are equipped with shutters to segregate men.

A female employee should wear decent clothes in her work place.

Multi-sectional stores (that sell both cosmetics and women’s lingerie) can either employ 100 percent Saudi female staff or remove the products targeted by the ministerial resolution on “lingerie and cosmetics stores”, unless the store owner is willing to hire Saudi female employees.

Saudis are starting to accept this new resolution more than they did when the resolution on women selling lingerie was issued. A female vendor is no longer a strange phenomenon in Saudi society but the resolution needs some time to be fully accepted.