RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — No women, no points.
Motor racing governing body FIA and the Saudi Arabian Motor Federation agreed not to count the Hail Baja Rally for Baja championship points after FIA learned the four-day event starting Tuesday had excluded a female driver.
This ultraconservative kingdom is the only country in the world to ban women from driving. After a Russian woman’s request to compete in the desert rally wasn’t granted, the Saudi federation opted to stage the race on its own because it could not comply with FIA’s ruling to let women behind the wheel.
“We cannot accept women in the race,” Saudi Arabian Motor Federation chairman Mishaal al-Sudairy told The Associated Press. “We are a sports entity. We abide by the laws, and we do respect them. We don’t even question them.”
Al-Sudairy said the unidentified Russian woman had asked for a visa as a technical adviser for a Russian driver, but once she got the visa she then applied to be a driver in the race in the northeastern city of Hail.
Following the woman’s rejection, al-Sudairy said the Saudis agreed with FIA to “withdraw and change our event to an international stand-alone competition,” meaning the top racers will not get points toward the championship standings.
Al-Sudairy said he was surprised by FIA’s ruling because the issue of female drivers didn’t come up at last year’s Hail Baja race.
FIA officials did not immediately comment on the case.
The incident is yet another example of how the 18th-century mores that govern every day life in Saudi Arabia sometimes clash with the country’s 21st-century veneer — malls with designer stores, gleaming office buildings and fancy cars that cruise the large highways.
The restrictions, which include keeping the sexes segregated and banning women’s sports leagues and physical education classes in government girls’ schools, stem from the stern version of Islam that the kingdom follows. Conservative adherents want to ban anything that might — in their eyes — give more freedoms for women since that would lead to decadence and a dissipation of Islamic values.
Because of that, female athletes are not allowed to participate in the Olympics, an issue that was highlighted in last year’s Beijing Games. At the time, Anita DeFrantz, the senior U.S. member of the International Olympic Committee and chair of its Women and Sport Commission, called for the exclusion of Saudi Arabia from the 2012 London Games unless it ends its male-only policy.
Prince Abdullah bin Khaled, executive director of the Hail Baja Rally, shrugged off FIA’s ruling.
“This will have no effect on the rally,” Abdullah said.
He noted that the Dakar Rally has acquired an “international reputation” despite being left out of the official World Rally Championship system, and the Hail Baja Rally could do the same.
Preparations for the race were under way Monday in Hail, about 400 miles northeast of Riyadh. The city lies at the southern fringes of the great Nafud Desert, one of the most inhospitable places on earth.
The four-wheel vehicles taking part in the race were inspected Monday to make sure they meet international standards. The ceremonial start and official prologue will take place Tuesday, with the main action over two legs in the Nafud Desert on Wednesday and Thursday.
Organizers say that 35 participants — 16 of them non-Saudi — will take part in the event, covering a total distance of 310 miles in three days. An observer from FIA will attend.
Tomas Ourednicek, a 39-year-old navigator from the Czech Republic, called the rally “a huge event.”
“We have had a warm welcome and I’m happy to take part in it,” Ourednicek told the AP. “But it will be important for us to have the points, and this is not good for us.”
To ensure the safety of the participants, there will be a sophisticated tracking system and five helicopters, two of them for medical evacuation, in place for the duration of the event.
“All kinds of precautions have been taken,” al-Sudairy said.
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