Saudi sports ban for schoolgirls may be lifted

Saudi authorities have been asked to consider lifting a state school ban on sports for girls, according to the official SPA news agency.

The religiously conservative country included women in its Olympic team for the first time only two years ago.

Under a strict interpretation of sharia law, Saudi women are banned from driving and must gain formal permission from a male relative to leave the country, start a job, or open a bank account. But King Abdullah is pushing cautious social reforms improving women’s rights in the face of conservative resistance.