While Saudi has made significant social reforms in recent years – in 2018 it changed the law to allow women to drive and to attend football matches – critics says its investment in boxing is to deflect attention from controversy over its human rights record, a practice known as ‘sportswashing’.
Nicolson, however, had no reservations to fighting on the card and hopes to use her platform to promote opportunities for women in Saudi.
“They’re trying to westernise the culture while keeping it respectful. But they do want to move with the times and the Western world. I think this is a big part of that movement,” she says.
“I’m in such an empowering position to inspire women who will be at the show, women in Saudi Arabia who will think ‘that can be me, I can fight or I can do what I’m passionate about’.”
Earlier in fight week, Nicolson met young female boxers in Riyadh.
In 2019, Rasha Al Khamis became the Saudi’s first certified female boxing coach, and she is now vice-president of the Saudi Boxing Federation, tasked with leading the charge to raise a generation of female boxers in the region.
However, human rights organisation Amnesty International says since 2022 when Ali fought, severe restrictions on women have remained.
“For all the likely talk about how this fight might show that Saudi Arabia is ‘opening up’ and ‘changing’, we should bear in mind that Saudi human rights activists who call for greater women’s rights risk immediate arrest, torture and a long jail sentence,” Amnesty International’s Felix Jakens said.
