Saudi Arabia, where public sports events for women are banned, will allow females to compete in the Olympic Games for the first time, its embassy in London said in a statement issued Sunday. The Saudi Olympic Committee will "oversee participation of women athletes who can qualify", the BBC quoted the statement as saying.
The issue of women in sport remains extremely sensitive in Muslim state, where women are not even allowed to drive cars and the authorities shut down private gyms for women in 2009 and 2010.
Equestrian contestant Dalma Malhas, 18, is likely to be the country's only female athlete to qualify for this summer's Games in London which get underway on July 27. Malhas won a bronze medal at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics without having been nominated by her country, following an invitation from the International Olympic Committee (OIC).
The BBC reported that Saudi's King Abdullah pushed for the policy change, but had delayed the announcement due to last week's death of heir-apparent Crown Prince Nayef.
"It's very sensitive," a senior Saudi official told the BBC. "King Abdullah is trying to initiate reform in a subtle way, by finding the right balance between going too fast or too slow. "Partly because of the mounting criticism we woke up and realised we had to deal with this. We believe Saudi society will accept this," the official said.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei are the only three countries never to have sent women athletes to the Olympics.
But Qatar has already announced it will send a three-woman team to London.
The move could provoke resistance in Malhas's homeland which operates under a strict Islamic code in which women are forced to cover themselves from head to toe.