RIYADH, May 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Saudi Arabia was to witness later Tuesday, May 3, the wrapping up of the first women’s table tennis (ping pong) championship, laying grounds for the first-ever women’s sports competition in the male-dominated Saudi society.

Under the auspices of the Saudi royal family, the ping pong championship, that opened on May 1, witnessed the participation of a number of Saudi university and school female students.

“The competition is held as part of our keenness to organize sporting activities that match the Saudi women, traditions and the religious atmosphere in the kingdom,” Dr. Ibtsam Fakhani, dean of the Jeddah-based Dar Al-Hekmah faculty, organizer of the women contest, told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, May 3.

The contest, which is sponsored by Princess Loaloa Al-Faisal, deputy head of the faculty’s board of trustees, saw six female teams from a number of Saudi schools and faculties competing among each other, she stressed.

The faculty dean expected the final match of the contest, due to wrap up later Tuesday, to draw heavy woman attendance.

The participation of Saudi women in sports has been a thorny issue in Saudi society, with a host of Saudi scholars declaring fatwas banning women from taking part in any sport.

However, Mohamed bin Moussa Al-Sherif, professor of Islamic studies at King Abdul Aziz University, said women could take part in sports under certain regulations.

Any sport that is deemed not risky for women, not a cause for indecent attire or a reason for creating enmities or developing bad manners could be practiced by women, according to Al-Sherif.

For her part, Saudi writer Soheila Zein Al-Abedeen criticized the fatwas issued by some Saudi scholars on banning the Saudi women from taking part in any kind of sports.

“I don’t know on which religious bases they are based in banning the establishment of women’s sports’ clubs in the kingdom,” she said.

Islam has always urged people (male and female alike) to take care of their physical health as well as the spiritual, mental and social ones, she stressed.

Many Saudi intellectuals have been calling for granting Saudi women their rights guaranteed by Shari`ah.

On June 14, Saudi Arabia’s Third National Dialogue Forum called for drawing a line between traditions and the Islamic tenets regarding women’s rights.