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The dashboard of the lift in the hotel Radisson Blue Al-Salam, Jeddah, exemplifies the segregacionismo existing in Saudi Arabia. In the button of the sixth floor is marked to the gym for men; on the second floor, the women. Two hundred meters beyond the hotel, there is a bank branch in a function of one gender or the other. However, there is no reproach when a Spanish journalist, Mónica Marchante, Movistar, go to the bank branch to the area by sex not applicable. Dealer found himself with the refusal to access to the swimming pool of the hotel. “The man told me to hurry, as if it will cost you,” says the reporter on the environment in which women live in the city that is hosting this controversial Supercopa of Spain.
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the Corniche, the modern promenade that borders the Red Sea clipped at the bottom by luxury hotels and speckled by the silhouette of skyscrapers, is one of the highlights of the city in which you can appreciate more the presence of women on the street. Most of them are dressed in the abaya (robe) and black niqab (veil) covering their heads. Many leave see your face. A central lane, enabled for bicycles and carriages, sightseeing, and gardens with swings offer them a simple entertainment that they share with their children.
In restaurants, shopping centres, and in localized on the outside there are also designated areas for families and children and tables for the exclusive use of male. The commercial areas are another of the points in which the presence of women is more numerous. “The restrictions are now more by habit than by prohibition of the law. These bans were repealed about two months ago. Already there are new restaurants that have been built without the restricted areas,” says an employee of the organization who prefers to remain anonymous. “In three years, since taking the power crown prince Mohamed bin Salman, there have been major changes in Saudi Arabia, but you should go little by little, is not easy. I wish I could go faster, but there are people that agree and other that do not,” says another worker.
This progress was unimaginable just a few years ago,” says a follower
At six in the afternoon, four hours of the start of the semi-final, the stroke polyhedral shape diamond stadium King Abdullah stands imposing in the middle of a vast open space. The only women that swarm around in groups are contracted by the organization to different tasks. Some are at the doors of the stadium. Others are directed towards the boxes, where you check that everything is correct. As workers, they also form part of a historic day. For the first time the women had free access to a stadium of Saudi Arabia without areas defined for them.
The female access to the coliseums of football is not a novelty. What is new is the possibility of occupying any area of the field and mingle with the men. No signs indicative of “women only”. This was one of the conditions that the Spanish Football Federation demanded that the saudi arabian authorities to sign the millionaire agreement (eur 120 million for three years) that has brought the Super cup.
Protest, organized by Amnesty International, yesterday in front of the embassy of Saudi in Madrid for the detention of Loujain al-Hatloul. EUROPA PRESS
“We are very pleased by this progress, it is a special day because this was unimaginable just a few years ago,” says Ghaaliya, which appears in the surroundings of the stadium in the absence of a time for the start of the match. “We are fans of Real Madrid and it is amazing to be able to attend a match of them. I am so excited to be able to watch my team, but also able to enter through any door”, says smiling Soad. The question is to know if the measure will be extended once the end of the Super cup and the clubs and the press leave the country. “I think that this is going to keep them, there is no turning back,” says convinced a member of the organization. The time also will tell also if protests such as that organised in Madrid by Amnesty International in front of the embassy of Saudi Arabia to demand the release of the activist, Loujain al-Hatloul, in prison for 600 days by claiming the rights of women, will have their effect.
There are gymnasiums and bank offices for themselves and others different to them
At the ticket office answered that there are “no problems” if a woman pretended to acquire a location. The scenes with them as the protagonists follow one another. In the immense parking lot for the 45,000-seater that surrounds the stadium an all-american brand park run by a twenty-something. Three women accompany it and one of them acquires a scarf madrid before entering one of the doors that give access to the VIP area under the signboard of Gold and Silver tickets. A few feet beyond parking the bus peña local madrid White KSA. As apeando are forming a phalanx exclusively male that was singing towards the entrance that gave access to their locations. In the rocks still seems not to have been installed, the mix of gender.
Already in the stands when the teams jumped out to warm up, in the VIP area next to the benches, several girls are dug in the hopes of being able to photograph as close as possible to the players. Rumbles, electronic music and the flashes of mobile phones soar when Sergio Ramos leading the way to the lawn of Real Madrid. You see women in group, alone or accompanied in all areas of the field that you can see from the area. The image they wanted to convey to the world the saudi arabian authorities was picked up by cameras and television. Lack pro to see how large and durable is the opening started.
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