Exactly seven years ago this weekend I attended the first Islamic Games in Mecca. I was the only Western journalist there and probably the only infidel.

Outside of the Rumble in the Jungle it was hard to recall as anything quite as bizarre as this Dazzler in the Desert, an event of near Olympian proportions taking place in the holiest of citadels, where they flock in their millions to pray but had now gathered to watch thousands play.

A total of 7,000 athletes from 54 Islamic countries competing in 13 sports over a fortnight.

For some of us old enough to remember, a Friday night at Mecca years ago meant smooching around the local ballroom to the strains of Joe Loss. Here, another sort of song and dance was going on, a fascinating piece of Arabesque. As the searing sun dipped behind the dunes, and the athletes grouped behind their banners at the opening ceremony, more than 3,000 students re-enacted the religious, romantic and often violent history of Mecca.

And not a woman in sight.

Either as a competitor or spectator.


While I was there it was whispered to me then that the International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge had written to the Saudis on behalf of world sports governing bodies expressing his concern and suggesting in the strongest possible terms that the Saudi's ban on women from the sporting arena had to be addressed. Pronto.

He indicated that by the 2012 Olympics all nations must have female participation. The inference was clear. If it did not comply, one of the world's wealthiest sporting nations could face expulsion, just as South Africa did over their own form of discrimination. It was a yellow card.

Yet Saudi Arabia's disgraceful sexual apartheid continues.

After initially hinting that at least there might be a token female representation in the Saudi team for London it seems there has been a swift volte-face, no doubt after pressure from Saudi's all-powerful mullahs.

As insidethegames has reported, Prince Nawal bin Faisal, the President of the Saudia Arabian Olympic Committee (and ironically a member of the IOC whose own Charter prohibits gender discimination) now says they will not select women, declaring: "We are not endorsing any Saudi female participation at the moment in the Olympics or other international championships."

However if the IOC were to offer any Saudi woman athlete a wildcard, as they did young "suffragette'" showjumper Dalma Malhas (pictured) for the last Youth Olympics they would be allowed to compete – though presumably not under the national flag - as long as they did not violate Sharia law. Which again presumably means being covered from head to toe and not mingling with men.


What sort of a compromise is that?

It smacks of the old South Africa, where occasionally approved prominent black sports figures were allowed into the country to take part in sports events as "honorary whites".

Why the IOC have tolerated this situation for so long is beyond comprehension. One hopes it is not because the Saudis are a wealthy and powerful presence on a body which doffs it cap all too readily to the rich and the royal.

Apart from covering the Islamic Games I have visited Saudi Arabia on several occcasions and every time I have felt as uncomfortable as I did in apartheid South Africa.

I asked repeatedly if other predominantly Islamic countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Morocco were happy to send women to the Games, why not the kingdom of Saudi Arabia? The answer was always a shrugged: "It's our culture."

Many things have been part of culture – like public executions in this country, and slavery in the United States. But we have moved on. So must the Saudis.

Can they really continue to hide behind such a medieval cultural veil?

Precedcent says not. Afghanistan were excluded from the Sydney Olympics in 2000 because of the Taliban's discrimination against women, their IOC membership having been suspended the year before.

And of course South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) had been banned earlier because they refused to send teams that were representative of the country.

While I am not in favour of quasi-politcal protests that disfigure the Games I would find it hard not to support any demo that condemns the presence of an all-male Saudi team in London. And I suspect there will be some.

As Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation points out, the IOC needs to send a clear message that they will not tolerate continued gender discrimination. She is not alone in calling for Saudia Arabia to be banned from the London Games.

Back in Mecca in April 2005 I got the impression that hosting the Islamic Games was done with a prospective football World Cup bid in mind and, one suspects, much further down the line, an Olympics, too. Of course, that would not be possible while Saudi Arabia continues to exclude women from the playing field and the stands.

Ironically, with all their resources, Saudi Arabia probably stage the Olympics at the drop of a burqua, though the prospect of the likes of Jessica Ennis having to run and jump in one may not be quite as appealing.

With Qatar promising some female selection for 2012 (well, they have no choice as they are staging the football World Cup in 2022 and are in the biddingmarket for an Olympics two years earlier) and Brunei indicating they will choose anyone, male or female, who meets the qualifying standard, Saudi Arabia will be the only all-male bastion left in the Olympic movement, which the increasingly strident voices of female IOC members are not slow to point out.

Among them are the world's foremost Muslim woman Olympian, Nawal el Moutawakel, the Moroccan who leapt over the hurdles in her homeland and is now moving up the IOC hierarchy, and American Anita DeFranz, the  chair of the IOC's Women and Sport Committee who has a great ally in fellow IOC member Prince Faisal of Jordan, another Islamic country where the emancipation of women in sport puts the Saudis to shame.

Those Islamic Games were the closest a sports event has been to the days of the original Olympics in Ancient Greece, where females were also forbidden from playing and peeping and, if they were caught doing so, were put to death.

Knowing their propensity for casting the first stone at errant women I'm surprised the Saudis haven't gone that far yet.


However we learn that some team sports, like basketball and volleyball, are now being quietly introduced in private girls schools. One small step for womankind in a feudal society where females still cannot drive on the roads, let alone off the first tee.

The Saudis have had ample warning that cultural taboos must be removed and allow their sport to show its feminine side. But the time has come for them to stop playing men-only games with the Olympics and for the IOC to cease burying their heads in the copious sands of this obstinate desert land.

So come on Mr President. Man up.

Unless he relents Prince Nawal should be kicked off the IOC and Saudi Arabia's membership suspended forthwith. Time they were shown the red card.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title from Atlanta to Zaire.