"I feel that pole dancing has been given more attention, because it's something new and girls love to try it," said May al-Youssef, who owns one such gym in Riyadh. In this changing context, at least three gyms in Saudi Arabia have spotted an opening and begun offering pole dancing courses. Officials are also working towards greater women's participation in golf, a traditionally male-dominated sport whose popularity is taking off domestically. Last month saw the Saudi women's national football team compete in their first matches at home against Bhutan, and a women's premier league is now in the works. Read more: Watch: Joe Biden's latest gaffe- a rocky start and a counting problem However, the promotion of women's sports has recently featured as part of a broader push to open up Saudi society and project a softer image to the outside world, despite persistent repression of women activists and dissidents. "Now they say 'We want to try it'."īut Nada's insistence on being identified by her first name only indicates that she and other Saudi pole dancers still have some work to do.įor many years, notorious restrictions on what Saudi women could wear and where they could work also limited their options for physical recreation. "At first, they said this is inappropriate and a mistake," she told AFP. The 28-year-old believes she has made progress, at least within her own circle of friends. Undeterred, Nada stuck with the course she enrolled in a few years ago at a local gym, in part to chip away at that very stigma. Pole dancing as a form of exercise has been tainted by its association with the seedy strip clubs and burlesque houses often depicted in Hollywood films. When yoga instructor Nada took up pole dancing, the backlash in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia was both harsh and quick, and she has struggled to overcome the fallout ever since.įamily and friends in the capital Riyadh told her the gruelling form of exercise - a test of strength and coordination involving acrobatic movements on a vertical pole - was "so wrong".
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