Event

In the book, published in October 2025 by I.B. Tauris, Lysa explores the history of women’s football in Saudi Arabia from a grassroots perspective. 

While the first official women’s national football league was established in 2020 following the ambitious Saudi Vision 2030, the unofficial history of women’s football in the Kingdom can be traced back to 2005. This book is also a study of social and political change in Saudi Arabia through the history of the women who paved the way for reform.

The event takes place at Scene HumSam, the University Library at Blindern. No registration is required. More information on UiO's website.

• Dr. Charlotte Lysa is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). She holds a PhD in Middle East Studies from the Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oslo and is part of the research project FORM – Football and Religion in the Middle East.
• Dr. Laila Makboul is a Postdoctoral researcher at Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies (SACS) at Universität Bern, in Switzerland.
• Dr. Bjørn Olav Utvik is Professor Emeritus of Middle East Studies at the University of Oslo. He is the author of The Pious Road to Development: Islamist Economics in Egypt (2011) and (co-ed. with Kjetil Selvik) Oil States in the New Middle East: Uprisings and Stability (2016), in addition to Islamismen (in Norwegian, 3 ed. 2020), a comprehensive history and analysis of Islamism in the Middle East and North Africa.

Participants

Charlotte Lysa

Senior Research Fellow

Laila Makboul

Postdoctoal researcher at Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies (SACS) at Universität Bern, Switzerland

Bjørn Olav Utvik

Professor Emeritus, Department of Culture, Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UiO