RIYADH – Agroup of women whooped and cheered as they marked InternationalWomen’s Day by exercising a recently acquired freedom: the right to go fora jog in the streets of Jeddah.
Wearing big smiles and traditional full-length robes adapted for sports,they pounded through sleepy alleys past puzzled shopkeepers in Jeddah’shistoric district.
Women in the kingdom are hopeful of huge changes. The government introducedphysical education for girls last year and began licensing women’s sportsclubs, but Saudis are still coming around to women running in public.
“This is just the beginning of a revolution for women in Saudi Arabia. Injobs, in our lives, in society, everything is going to change for Saudiwomen,” said one of the joggers, university student Sama Kinsara.
The biggest change yet will come in the summer when Saudi women will beallowed to drive.