Historic moment for Saudi female Olympian

The participation of the first female athletes from the conservative Islamic nations of Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar was widely seen as a breakthrough for the Olympic movement, while nations that have long nurtured women’s sports reaped a golden reward. The IOC had previously threatened to ban countries from competing if they refused to field a women's team as part of the Olympic Charter states "The practice of sport is a human right." Judoka Wojdan Shaherkani, who took to the mat after a row over whether she would be able to compete in a hijab, admitted she felt overwhelmed by the attention focused on her as the first Saudi woman to compete in the Games. She was out of her depth, losing in just 82 seconds, but said the whole experience had her looking ahead to Rio in 2016. “I think that because of my participation in this Olympic Games, other Saudi women will participate in other competitions in the future,” she said. However, not everybody in Saudi Arabia saw Wojdan's attempt as a progressive move with some posting insults such as this comment on Twitter by Mohammed al-Barrak, a lecturer at Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca: "You do not represent the chaste of Muslim woman." Other Twitter posts from Saudi Arabia used the hashtag "#prostitutes of the Olympics." Her father has vowed to sue those who insulted his daughter for challenging strict traditions that prevented women from participating. "I have sent an urgent letter to the Minister of Interior Prince Ahmed bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz with copies of all attacks made on Twitter" said her father. US born and trained 800m runner Sarah Attar also represented Saudi Arabia. While she was never going to win a medal, she still described the occasion as a “huge honor to be here to represent the women of Saudi Arabia. It is a historic moment. I hope it will make a difference." It remains to be seen if the participation of competitors like Shaherkani and Attar will have a lasting impact within Saudi Arabia, a country where women cannot watch, practice or compete in sport, drive, cycle or leave the house alone.