Four Saudi nationals arrested following Tanzania Church blast

Four Saudi nationals and two others have been arrested following a bomb attack at a church in Tanzania’s northern city of Arusha that killed two people and injured 44 others.

On the other hand Saudi Arabia keeps a ban on sports activities in public girls’ schools amid continuing violations of women’s rights in the Kingdom.

Kingdom’s Education Ministry, however, announced on Saturday that private girls’ schools are allowed to offer sports to their students for the first time.

According to the ministry’s requirements, the schools can hold sports activities in accordance with the rules of Sharia law and students must adhere to “decent dress” codes.

The ministry also ordered private girls’ schools to provide appropriate places and equipment for playing sports.

“Everything is being held back in Saudi Arabia as far as women’s rights,” said Aziza Youssef, a professor at King Saud University.

Last year, Human Rights Watch called on the Saudi government to set a curriculum
for physical education for girls and to launch a public outreach campaign about girls’ rights to physical education.

“Although religious views opposing prohibition on women’s participation in sport are less frequently pronounced than those in favor, government policy is only inching toward realizing women’s right to sport rather than taking bold steps to realize it,” the organization said.

Women in Saudi Arabia are barred from most of their social rights such as driving. The driving ban is not enforced by law but is a religious fatwa imposed by the country’s Wahhabi clerics.

If women get behind the wheel in the kingdom, they may be arrested, sent to court and even flogged.

Meanwhile, Saudi women have mounted several campaigns to try and overturn the ban in recent years.