International Olympic Committee demanded by Human Rights Watch to include Saudi women into Olympics
The International Olympic Committee has been asked by the Human Rights Watch to ponder upon barring Saudi Arabia from taking part in the Olympic Games in case the country does not show signs of enlisting women onto its Olympics team.
The demand has been made from the IOC based on the report released by the human rights group.
According to the report of the rights group, the government of Saudi Arabia carries out discrimination against its women by not letting them take part in sporting events such as the Olympic Games based on the mindset that the female athletes would be tempted
towards immorality by the exposure such international sporting events offer.
Christoph Wilcke, who is a researcher for the Human Rights Watch, stated his stance in the following manner, “The glaring absence of a Saudi female athlete at the Olympics cannot go on much longer. Government clerics are saying, ‘We should do this.’ Even
if they take small steps, that still has the potential to alter lives of women who get out of the house, meet other women -- every bit helps.”
The upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games will not be featuring even one female athlete from Saudi Arabia as has been the case in the past. Saudi Arabia is not the only country that has never sent any of its female athletes to the Olympic Games, Qatar as well
as Brunei also fall in the same category.
According to the Human Rights Watch, the IOC should take categorical steps that would give deadlines to the government of Saudi Arabia to inculcate the country’s women into the Olympic Games. Not only that, a plan should be presented by the country to the
IOC that would clearly indicate how the women of Saudi Arabia would be entered into the Olympics team.
The stance that the IOC has taken for such countries, particularly Saudi Arabia is dialogue. In response to the demand made by the Human Rights Watch, the IOC has stated that discussion on allowing the participation of female athletes has been more effective
than taking strict measures such as threatening to bar the country’s participation from the Olympic Games altogether.
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