Meet Fatima Batook: the woman who helped make Saudi women’s gyms a reality again

Women in Saudi Arabia who wish to go to the gym can do so once again, thanks to the lobbying and entrepreneurial efforts of one woman: Fatima Batook.

Saudi Arabia did have a number of women-only gyms at one point. But because the kingdom didn’t have a legal entity to issue a license for women-only sports centers, they were all labeled health or beauty centers. That mislabeling eventually led to their closure.

From student to instructor

Batook is a sports pioneer in her country. She could regularly been seen exercising at Spectrum, a women-only Spinning center in AlKhobar before the government shut it down due to licensing issues.

In response, Batook set up an unlicensed mini-gym on a squash court in her compound and began to offer Spinning classes to her former gymmates.

Batook’s initiative caught the attention of the government, who invited her to join the Young Saudi Business Women of Eastern Province association in September of 2013. Her first meeting with the association proved pivotal.

“I told them I want to get a license for fitness clubs for any woman that wants to open a gym,” Batook told Wamda. “They opened doors for me. We worked as a team with case studies of obesity rates for women.”

Original article by Reine Farhat

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Meet Fatima Batook: the woman who helped make Saudi women’s gyms a reality again