抖阴短视频

RIYADH: Pounding on a cross-trainer in a Riyadh gym, Heelah Abdulaziz is one of many Saudi women hoping the licensing of female-only gyms from next month is another step toward further improving the lives of women in the Kingdom.
Gyms for women are being encouraged for the first time due to licensing of female-only gyms by the General Authority of Sports last year.
The licensing, which was anounced last month, opens the doors for girls to live a healthy lifestyle and sidesteps the sensitive women鈥檚 rights debate.
A spokeswoman for the sports authority told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that licenses would be granted from April to boost the sports economy, which does not just impact physical activity but also employment and business opportunities.
For Abdulaziz, 39, allowing gyms for women 鈥� although they are still banned from competitive sports 鈥� made sense, with around 44 percent of women classified as obese in 抖阴短视频, which has some of the world鈥檚 highest rates of obesity and diabetes.
鈥淲e鈥檒l get a lot more gyms. They鈥檒l compete and get cheaper so more women can come,鈥� she said at a NuYu fitness center, dressed in colorful workout gear rather than the head-to-toe black garment women, including foreigners, must wear in public.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 have sport at school, but I got interested after having children and wanting to lose weight. I tried to exercise at home,鈥� said Abdulaziz, who lost 15kg (33 pounds) in a year due to exercising.
Until now, the only gyms accessible to women were found in women鈥檚 centers, which would only get licenses if their main purpose was not exercise but as a spa or retail operation. Any centers found breaching that rule were closed down.
This left commercially run gyms catering to privately run women鈥檚 sports teams or middle-class women able to pay $200 monthly membership operating in legal limbo for years.
Susan Turner, chief executive of the NuYu chain set up by Princess Sara Mohammad Al-Saud in 2012 as the Kingdom鈥檚 first chain of female fitness centers, said licensing will lower costs, fuel expansion and improve standards. NuYu now has five centers, and is set to expand to eight this year.
But Turner said a major drawback was the ability to get staff locally, as sport is not mandatory in girls鈥� schools and physical education is not a career choice for Saudi women.
鈥淎t the moment we have to bring Western trainers to Saudi, but if we can train local women this will bring costs down and help staff more gyms,鈥� Turner told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, adding that NuYu planned to set up an academy for this.
鈥淚t is amazing that we get women coming in here in their 30s who have never moved their bodies on purpose... This is a culture that is very fast-food driven.鈥�
This is in line with the government鈥檚 Vision 2030 released last year, which argues the need for a healthier society and an economy more inclusive of women.
In a break from lifting weights, Rahaf Naasani, 27, said women needed gyms in 抖阴短视频 to be healthy and fit.
鈥淭here鈥檚 nowhere to work out outside, and the main activity otherwise revolves around food,鈥� said Naasani, a mother of 6-year-old twins, who moved to Riyadh from Syria seven years ago.