Saudi Arabia will enter women for London Olympics

Good News!!

Saudi Arabia will enter women athletes in the Olympics for the first time ever in London this summer, the Islamic kingdom's London embassy said on Sunday. Huraay!!

Human rights groups had called on the International Olympic Committee to bar Saudi Arabia from competing in London, citing its failure ever to send a woman athlete to a Games and its ban on sports in girls' state schools.

Members of the first female Saudi basketball team "Jeddah United" in  March 2012

Powerful Muslim clerics in the ultra-conservative state have repeatedly spoken out against the participation of girls and women in sports. In 2009 a senior cleric said girls risked losing their virginity by tearing their hymens if they took part in energetic sport. (Ok, and..??)