In a first, Saudi women from across the vast Gulf Kingdom will be able to attend football matches starting January 12, an AFP report said.
The announcement regarding this was made by the government of the kingdom which had barred women from sports arenas by strict rules on segregation of the sexes in public for a long time now.
"The first match that women will be allowed to watch will be Al-Ahli versus Al-Batin on Friday January 12," the ministry of information said in a statement
As per reports, the matches will be held in Riyadh, Jeddah and in the eastern city of Dammam.
In the last few months, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been easing social controls. In December last year, Saudi Arabia announced it was lifting a decades-ban on cinemas with the first movie theatres expected to open in March.
In September 2017, Saudi Arabia announced that it would allow women to drive, ending a long-standing policy that has become a global symbol of the oppression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom.
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