Dalma rides the Paint horse Flash Top Hat
Much has been said in the west about the deplorable situation for women in many Arab countries, most notably Saudi Arabia.
So it was encouraging to see in 2010 when Dalma Rushdi Malhas won a bronze medal in equestrian show jumping at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. She gave Saudi Arabia its second-ever Olympic medal, and its first medal from a woman.
You’d expect that Dalma would be riding again this year in the London, right?
Wrong. Saudi Arabia didn’t include Dalma in their qualifying team of six (male) riders, and of those six only four will actually go on to the Olympics.
Saudi Arabia’s laws severely limit what women can and can’t do. By law women are barred from playing in sports clubs, belonging to gyms, or working with expert trainers.
The advocacy group Human Rights Watch is calling for the International Olympic Committee to only allow Saudi Arabia to compete in the games if they send a woman to compete. Saudi officials have not ruled this out.
Should Saudi Arabia be banned from the Olympics if they deliberately deny a woman a spot on their team? Do you think it’s a fair to the country if not allowing women to play sports is a part of their belief system?
Should Saudi Arabia allow women to compete on the riding team? Only if the Saudi’s want to WIN! Horsewomen are notoriously competative and fiercely dedicated riders. Rather than banning Saudi Arabia, they should be strongly encourgaged to allow women riders on the team.
These inequalities are always highlighted when we measure other cultures and faiths with our judeo christian, western yardstick. From our perspective we view strict conservate muslim culture as backward, because of its treatment of woman and its harsh sharia laws.
That said, if a country wishes to play on the world stage in sports, business or politics, they invite these observations and comparisons. Further, it is my opinion that these cultures and countries artificaillly limit themselves to, in this case an equestirian team, that TRUELY does not represent the entire talent pool avaiable in their country.
Minus the oil, these countries are relegated to importing technology and intelectual property because they only take advantage of 50% of their citizens and therefore have trouble cannot “growing their own”.