1st female Saudi Olympian loses judo bout

Her facing trouble at home now because she was in a sporting event, just shows how the world should shun regimes like Saudi Arabia.

It isn't the government that might cause her problems it's the religion.

The government supports their brand of Sharia law, which in turn is religion. The government is also the one who would have banned her from going if she didnt have a male chaperone or if she was regularly in the company of men.

Lets say that I agree with everything you just said.

That still isn't "Her facing trouble at home now because she was in a sporting event" because of the government. She will face trouble at home because of the religion back home.

Changing the government wouldn't improve anything for her, so long as the religion was in place.

Any government that would force the population to not follow the religion would be facing a civil war, and likely one of the most one sided in history given how popular that sect of the religion is in SA.

The government supports the persecution of her rights, if her government supported her choices she would have nothing to fear. Further, if the American civil war had not happened it would have taken much longer for blacks to attain their own civil rights.

There was a quote I found saying that the reason she failed so miserably was because SA didnt allow her the same training as the other nations. I would have to agree with that thought, if SA is going to allow women to go to the Olympics and do well they should at least support them.

So, what did anyone think of the headscarf she was wearing?
I must say that I have NO problem with it AT ALL. ALL swimmers wear something similar.

I think she looked silly. But I tend to feel that way for all religous dress, be it magic underwear or the full ninja mailbox suit.

The government is the will of the people, but when she goes home and if she does face hardship I'm going to bet that it's not going to be the government doing her harm directly.
You know that's false, the government can't protect her all the time. She has a reasonable amount to fear even if the government supported her compleatly.

You mean the 2nd American Civil war?

I'm not sure that your statement is compleatly true, a technological inovation would have made human labour uneconomical. If the south had not been forced, maybe they would have been more willing to let things go. It's hard to make an informed judgement on an event that happened so long ago that you are claiming caused a change so far into the future.
She wasn't ready to fight the 26th (IIRC) best in the world at Judo. I thought their was a requirement to be ranked on an international event before they let someone compeat.

Either way, just because she is the best from her nation doesn't mean she is any good, when matched against the best from other nations. Maybe with better training she could be the best in the world, but we can't know.


I would say they should be granted the freedom to train as they need, but I don't think nations should be supporting athletes directly. At most pay for their trip to the Olympics.

But this is just me being down on the Olympics in general.

I dont either, I knew what it was when they first talked about it a few days ago. It's pretty much just a nylon cap, when I went to school I knew of several girls who wore them at gym class.

Talking about swimmers...

A government can do A LOT to change peoples perceptions of something, look at China and North Korea. Your statement "government is the will of the people" is true in a democracy, a Monarchy is far from that.

Who cares what someone wears as long as it doesn't compromise safety. In the spirit of the Olympics tho, I think competitors should be able to wear the logos of their sponsors, the way say Nascar does.

And sports that are judged by how people look rather than their actual scores, like gymnastics and figure skating, I don't think it's fair that the costumes influence the outcome. The answer for that is to have naked competitors in those evens to level the playing field a bit. I mean is it really right that someone wins because they have a better tailor?

Naked figure skating.... that would be quite cold.

It isn't the government that might cause her problems it's the religion.


In the case of Saudi Arabia, they use the Koran as the Constitution of the country.

So it is the same thing.

They're pretty skimpily dressed as is, and I believe there was a curfuffle to tone down the vaginal shots a while back. Forget if that involved a little more material down there, or lifts that weren't quite as splay legged as before.

From my understanding their costumes, although not fit for regular winter wear, they are warm enough for the ice rink. Especially once they get into their routine.

Regardless I think it will be many decades before we see any Saudi women in any artistic Olympic matches.