Saudi teen promotes passion for cycling outdoors

Arab News

September 5, 2017

Jeddah, Sept 5: Nadima Abulaynain, 18, is setting the scene for women who are keen to cycle the streets of Jeddah.

“I’ve liked riding a bicycle since I was a child,” the high school student told Arab News. “Why not spread interest in the activity and help other try it?”

All she needed was a bicycle, a helmet and social media to start a cycling club. Abulaynain started with her family, encouraging them to start cycling around their house in Jeddah.

“In the beginning, people were surprised to see us on the road in the neighborhood. They then became more supportive.”

She started an Instagram page, posting photos of her family’s cycling. The page soon became popular, which “I didn’t expect,” Abulaynain said.

She started a WhatsApp group for those interested in cycling to agree on a time and place to meet.

“We started meeting every Saturday and Wednesday for an hour or an hour and a half. We helped each other.”

She said some lacked the skills to ride a bicycle, but were interested in the activity. Abulaynain wears a helmet on top of her headscarf.

“Nothing in Islam forbids sports,” she said, adding that her school supports the activity she is trying to promote.

A few months after she started the club, she and her group had to stop because “it came to our attention that we needed to have permits to be able to keep our cycling group active.” They have applied for the permits, and are waiting to hear back from the governorate.

The group consists of 20 members, and is open to anyone who wishes to join. Her Instagram page is under Jeddah Woman Cyclist (@Jeddah_Woman), which directs those who are interested to a form they need to fill out in order to join. The form includes health and safety information.

Abulaynain and other young Saudi women have been increasingly proactive in introducing fitness into their daily lives in recent years.

Many women have even turned their passion for physical activity into home businesses, including zumba, Pilates, yoga and kickboxing classes.

A 2014 report by the National Health Information Center of the Saudi Health Ministry said only 29 percent of women in Saudi Arabia include physical activity in their daily lives. The report linked lack of physical activity to diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

Comments