This paper seeks to contribute to the scholarship on women and social change in Saudi Arabia through the case of female football players in Riyadh. Officially, there has been no women's football in the Kingdom, but under the surface women have been playing for more than a decade. The women are actively promoting and engaging in change and women's opportunities to practice sport by building organization, creating awareness and negotiating norms and regulations. They are not in opposition to the regime, but supportive of reforms in favour of increased rights for women, while seeing conservative elements in the society as their opponents and the royal family as their allies. They are thus engaging in what O'Brian and Li has termed "rightful resistance" by deploying the language of the rulers to express their perspectives and aims, and are engaged in a three party game with the rulers and conservatives, where divisions within the state and elite allies matter greatly.

Da fifa i 2010 uventet annonserte Qatar som vertsnasjon av vm i fotball i 2022, ble verdens oppmerksomhet umiddelbart rettet mot den lille ørkenstaten. Det autoritære emiratet fremsto som et av de mest usannsynlige vertslandene for det enorme arrangementet, og søknaden om å få holde fotball-vm nærmest som et pr-stunt. Planene var svært ambisiøse, og ett spørsmål dukket raskt opp: Hvorfor?

Saudi Arabia is a non-signatory state to the Refugee Convention, with no domestic refugee law. Its refugee population is generally not categorised as such. Based on these facts, Saudi Arabia is largely missing from the refugee studies literature in general, and the increasing scholarship on refugee protection in states not signatory to the Refugee Convention in particular. What characterises refugee governance in wealthy, non-signatory states with a largely invisible refugee population? And, how does the “Saudi approach” to refugee protection relate to those of other non-signatory states? Based on hitherto unresearched archival material, interviews, and openly available sources it argues that while there are no legal framework for governing refugees in Saudi Arabia, the state has adopted ad-hocratic policies, which nevertheless followed a certain pattern when refugee situations emerge. This ad-hocratic approach is similar to that found in other non-signatory states in the Middle East and North Africa; the state responds to particular situations based on nationality or ethno-religious affiliations, keeping refugees strictly temporary and often on opaque terms. Where the situation in Saudi Arabia differs, is in the role undertaken by UNHCR who instead of acting as a “surrogate state” takes on a lobbying and monitoring role.

Scholars have examined the political role of football for Qatari authorities, but what football means to citizens remains unexplored. This paper seeks to answer the question "what is Qatari football?", through four parts: firstly, the introductory part identifies the gap in the literature and situates the paper in relevant academic discussions (in particular related to the concepts of glocal and modern traditionalism). The second part provides the historical and social context, while the fourth, empirical part reviews the history and development in football in Qatar and discusses and how traditional social markers and tribal identities is reflected in football in Qatar through interviews with young players and supporters. This part also highlights an ambivalence towards commercialization and politicization of Qatari football among supporters. Finally, the paper concludes that Qatari football is very much like the country itself; neither modern nor traditional, affected by both globalization, politics and distinct local features.

Lederartikkel, Babylon nr. 1 2020.