Saudi authorities have been asked by the King-appointed Shura Council to consider lifting a state school ban on sports for girls, in a religiously conservative country that included women in its Olympic team for the first time only two years ago.
Under a strict interpretation of sharia, 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.
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