Many of us might find these details not extraordinary, but in reality they are. Female athletes were not accepted at the Games for a long time; it was a boys’ game. There have been The Women’s Olympic Games, of course, but those games seem to be completely forgotten.

The woman who envisioned the Games was Alice Milliat, founder and president of La Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI); and she created them as her response to the refusal of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) to put women’s track and field on the program of the Olympic Games.

The Women’s Olympic Games took place in the 1920s and 1930s, and gave women an opportunity to improve their sporting performances by competing against each other. The first Games were held in Paris, France, in 1922. They included 11 events, and the participation of female athletes from 6 countries. Eighteen athletes broke world records and were cheered by more than 20,000 spectators. Four years later, the Games were held in Gothenberg, Sweden; 10 nations were represented, including Japan.

As ‘Milliat’s women’ broke new records, and their prestige rose, the IAAF started to push for more and more women in the IOC’s games. However, at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands, women competed only in 5 events, when they were promised 10. The response was immediate and severe: the British Women’s Athletics Association refused to take part in the Games as a protest against the false promise given by the IOC. It was the first, and only, Olympic Games that recorded a feminist boycott.

The last Women’s Olympic Games took place in London, in 1934. These Olympics Games are especially significant for the female 800m race that took place – banned till then due to the physical strength it requires. It might be worth noting that at Summer Olympic Games women were allowed to compete in this kind of race only in 1966.

Time seems to bring transformation, evolution. The status of women in the sports is improving with every new gathering, every Summer and Winter Olympic Games. However, some Arab countries find the idea of sending female athletes to compete in games still very problematic, and they justify it taking into the equation issues apparently related to their culture. As a result, several Muslim countries did not send any female athletes to the IOC’s games till now.

It so happened then, that when Khadija Mohammed qualified for the Olympics at the Al Shabab stadium in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), and was announced as the first Emirati to participate, the news reached the press at God’s speed.

When Qatar and Brunei announced they would send female athletes to attend the Games for the first time, a feeling that something important was happening spread among journalists. When it was confirmed that Bahiya al-Hamad will carry the Qatari flag at the opening ceremony, the world knew it’s going to be a truly historic moment.

As we learned that Brunei’s Maziah Mahusin will compete in the athletics; Qatar’s Nada Arkaji will compete in swimming, Noor al-Malki in athletics, Aya Magdy in table tennis, and Bahiya al-Hamad in shooting, we knew. For the first time, it seemed possible to have female athletes in every one of the 205 National Olympic Committees that were about to participate in the London’s games. The Olympics could suddenly change, and they would not be the same ever again.

It was a domino effect. Saudi Arabia also announce it would send women athletes to the Olympics for the first time. The excitement remained contained, though. In fact, the government had chosen two athletes, runner Sarah Attar from Pepperdine University in California (800-meter) and Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani (judo) who were either living outside the country, or carried almost no influence as sports’ figures inside Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the government’s decision seemed a clever attempt to quiet the international pressure, and essentially have an all-male Olympic team.

Nevertheless, Minky Worden of the New York-based Human Rights Watch states that this Olympic Games are truly important for Saudi women: “It’s an important precedent that will create space for women to get rights, and it will be hard for Saudi hardliners to roll back.”

Much more could have been done, but as Sarah Attar said from her training base in the US: “It’s such a huge honor and I hope that it can really make some big strides for women over there to get more involved in sport.”

It seems the London’s games will go down in history as important for women’s rights, and as a real step towards the day the Games will be completely gender equal. In the meantime, we will have the honor to admire the strength and the resilience of many women, several of them fantastic Muslim athletes: Hayat Lambarki (athletics) from Morocco, Amina Ferguen (athletics,) from Algeria, and Nisrine Dandan (basketball) from Lebanon, only to name a few.

Let us enjoy some great Olympic Games this summer, and many formidable performances by the most committed female athletes on the planet!

“This decision, following a similar one by Brunei Darussalam and Qatar, marks a significant progress in realizing the right of all to take part in physical and sporting activities, and hence achieving greater gender equality in sport,” the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke, said in a news release.

“Decisions such as the one taken today by the Saudi Arabian authorities definitely set a positive example and bring us gradually closer to the realization of a more equitable future, on and off the field of play,” he added.

According to the International Olympic Committee, Saudi Arabia will send two female athletes – Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani, who will compete in judo, and Sarah Attar, who will compete in athletics – to the 2012 Games, which start on 27 July in the UK capital.

Lemke noted that the UN family, the Olympic Movement and their partners, have long worked together to promote the participation of women in sports activities and competitions, as well as in management and leadership roles.

“This is for instance reflected in the fact that today, at the Olympics, participation of athletes is almost equally balanced between women and men,” he said, adding, however, that women and girls still face today a great deal of discrimination and marginalization in all sectors of society around the world.

“This saddening reality applies to the world of sport, despite the remarkable advances made in that area over the past decades,” the Special Adviser said. “The practice of sport and physical activity, at all levels, can have immense benefits for individuals, communities and societies. No one should, on the basis of gender, race, ability, age, culture or religious considerations, be denied access to sport and miss on the positive effects its practice can bring.”

One of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – anti-poverty and development targets agreed on by world leaders at a UN summit in 2000 – aims at “promoting gender equality and empowering women.” Mr. Lemke’s office has noted that sport has been recognised as a viable and practical tool to assist in the achievement of the MDGs.

In February, at the 5th World Conference on Women and Sport, organized by the IOC and attended by several UN officials, including Special Adviser Wilfried Lemke, participants adopted a declaration which said that “the promotion of women’s participation in sports activities, management and administration should, and must, serve the wider goal of supporting the international agenda of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.”