Last week, Saudi Arabia was elected to join the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women in its mission to promote “gender equality and the empowerment of women” worldwide. The appointment was not entirely without drawing fire from many quarters. Many wondered how did the country win seats on UN human rights bodies? Others proposed that it was cash and secret deals, even with adversaries like Russia, that won them the votes.

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. It is instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Feminists and human rights activists who routinely charge that the Kingdom is one of the world’s worst places to be a woman, immediately questioned the country’s place on the UN body. Citing the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Gender Gap report, Hillel Neuer of UN Watch summed up the irony with the comment, “Electing Saudi Arabia to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist the town fire chief”.

Medea Benjamin, an American political activist, best known for co-founding Code Pink and the fair-trade advocacy group Global Exchange tweeted, “Who let the Saudi fox in the hen house; their election to the UN Commission on the Status of Women is an outrage!” Others speculated that “money was somehow involved”, and that “it is common for countries to strike back room deals to elect each other on human rights bodies”.

A few days later, with global media furore still showing no signs of abating, the Saudi Shura Council — an advisory board that studies and proposes legislation and forwards it to the Council of Ministers for approval — shot down a proposal for a women’s sports college. The proposal that required a minimum of 76 votes to pass, was three votes short.

The council rejected a measure that would have founded sports education colleges for women in the kingdom, a blow to the advancement of equal opportunity in a country where girls are already denied physical education programmes in state-run schools because female exercise is seen by some ultraconservative clerics as “immodest”. The proposal was presented by three members — Lina Al Maeena, Lateefa Al Shaalan and Ata Al Subaiti. Al Shaalan later told a local daily that, “This was the most frustrating day for Saudi women.”

Al Maeena, a Shura Council member and the co-founder of the Jeddah United Sports Company, the country’s first women’s sports club that has pioneered the role of women in sports in the kingdom, however, stayed upbeat. Reacting in a true sporting style, Al Maeena said: “Obviously, there are people who have different schools of thought. I don’t know what the rationale exactly is. However, we look at it in a positive way because it was a good debate for the public since the Shura Council represents the people. It was a close call — we got 73 votes ... Fifty-seven said ‘No’ but 73 people said ‘Yes,’ so technically we were in the majority, but fell short by three votes that were needed for the proposal to pass.”

She said privately-run universities can still institute sports colleges. “That’s not a problem and I hope that the universities add sports as a department or as a course. In addition, a lot of work is being done by the General Sports Authority in terms of certification. I really hope that we can start with the private sector and request another vote and hopefully the proposal will pass the next time,” she added.

Al Maeena added that the Ministry of Education could still adopt the proposal. According to her, the Shura represents different groups, mentalities, ages and both genders. “Obviously, there is a segment in society that is not in favour of women’s sports, but the most important thing is Vision 2030. The government’s stand on women’s sports is very clear and now it is up to the people to implement Vision 2030. Our job in Shura is to promote Vision 2030, especially in the sports sector,” she said, adding that licences were being issued for women’s gyms and “we need qualified sports professionals”.

A college student added: “We really deplore the absence in our society of a culture that promotes sports as a crucially stabilising factor in women’s lives. Many families see sports as a luxury that they think they do not need, while several other families consider it as an alien phenomenon that can lead only to trouble. We do need to change the way families look at sports for women and help them appreciate its role in building characters and giving women the strength they need.”

It is not just families but members of the Shura Council who should be made aware that their decisions command immediate worldwide attention and they are not always welcomed with open arms.

Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/@talmaeena.