AFP, Jeddah :
Dana al-Gosaibi’s passion for horses has been hard to pursue in Saudi Arabia, where conservatives resist women’s involvement in sport.
But the Islamic kingdom’s tentative advancement of women’s rights has given the Saudi horse trainer hope that one day she might be able to realise her dream of starting her own business.
“There is this very weird belief that a woman shouldn’t ride a horse,” Gosaibi says, especially if she is not yet married as “she might lose her virginity”.
“It’s amazing how a lot of people believe these things,” she tells AFP ahead of International Women’s Day on Wednesday. Herself unmarried, Gosaibi, 35, dreams of opening her own stables to focus on “a more gentle” way of training horses than the standard approach in the male-dominated kingdom. Saudi Arabia has some of the world’s tightest restrictions on women.
But change is under way, says Gosaibi, who returned to Saudi Arabia four years ago after more than a decade living abroad.
“I came back and I saw all these women” working as cashiers, in sales and in offices, Gosaibi says.
Dana al-Gosaibi’s passion for horses has been hard to pursue in Saudi Arabia, where conservatives resist women’s involvement in sport.
But the Islamic kingdom’s tentative advancement of women’s rights has given the Saudi horse trainer hope that one day she might be able to realise her dream of starting her own business.
“There is this very weird belief that a woman shouldn’t ride a horse,” Gosaibi says, especially if she is not yet married as “she might lose her virginity”.
“It’s amazing how a lot of people believe these things,” she tells AFP ahead of International Women’s Day on Wednesday. Herself unmarried, Gosaibi, 35, dreams of opening her own stables to focus on “a more gentle” way of training horses than the standard approach in the male-dominated kingdom. Saudi Arabia has some of the world’s tightest restrictions on women.
But change is under way, says Gosaibi, who returned to Saudi Arabia four years ago after more than a decade living abroad.
“I came back and I saw all these women” working as cashiers, in sales and in offices, Gosaibi says.
