THE International Olympic Committee claims that they do not allow any form of discrimination. For years, it banned South Africa from competing in any Olympic event until the apartheid laws were scrapped.

Saudi Arabia forbids by state law any women from taking part in any sport and has never entered even one female in all its Olympic teams.

Only Brunei and Qatar and Saudi Arabia have never ever had any women Olympic competitors. Brunei and Qatar do not ban women from sports. They just, as yet, have not had any good enough to enter, but they are improving all the time.

The situation with the Saudis is vastly different, so why are they not banned? What is the difference between South Africa’s Apartheid, and Saudi Arabia’s exclusion of all females?

David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Acomb, York.