Saudi Arabian girls' school defies sports ban with basketball court

A girls' school in Saudi Arabia has defied a religious ban on female sports by erecting basketball hoops and letting pupils play at break-time, the daily al-Watan reported on Wednesday.

Powerful clerics in the conservative kingdom have long spoken against allowing girls to play sports.
The school in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province has now become the first state-run girls school openly to encourage sports, Watan reported, quoting a supervisor as saying it would expend pupils' energy "in a positive way".
Private girls schools already offer sports classes.