Saudi
women celebrate Women's Day with a jog in Jeddah
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[March 09, 2018]
By Emily Wither
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia
(Reuters) - Paying no heed to bemused onlookers, a group
of women in the Saudi city of Jeddah marked
International Women's Day on Thursday by exercising one
of their newly acquired freedoms: the right to go for a
jog.
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Saudi women have had a momentous year as the young,
reform-minded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lifted a number
of key restrictions on their rights. Women can now attend
football matches, partake in sports themselves and by the summer
will be allowed to drive cars.
Saudi Arabia is still one of the most restrictive countries for
women in the world. The deeply conservative kingdom has no women
ministers and retains a guardianship system requiring women to
have a male relative's approval for important decisions.
But with even that being chipped away, it is hard to overstate
how much Saudi women's lives are being transformed.
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In Jeddah's historic district, smiling women wearing traditional
full-length robes adapted for sports cheered and one even
skipped with joy as they pounded through the sleepy alleys past
puzzled shopowners.
The government introduced physical education for girls last year
and began licensing women's sports clubs, but Saudis are still
coming around to women running in public.
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"This is just the beginning of a revolution for women in Saudi
Arabia. In jobs, in our lives, in society, everything is going to
change for Saudi women," said one of the joggers, university student
Sama Kinsara.
Kinsara is studying film, a major she will be able to use at home
this year as Saudi Arabia lifts a 35-year-old ban on cinemas.
Yasmine Hassan, a member of the Bliss Runners group organizing the
event, said it was aimed at empowering women.
"This is a message that we would like to send them and say, 'Come,
you're not alone, we will do this together and the time is now'".
"Hopefully by next year there are going to be way more rights given
to Saudi women, the ones that we deserve," she said.
(Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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