Saudi Arabia, under domestic and international pressure to grant women sporting rights, is creating separate stadium sections so that female spectators and journalists can attend soccer matches in a country that has no public physical education or sporting facilities for women.

The move announced by the recently elected head of the Saudi Football Federation, Ahmed Eid Alharbi, a storied player believed to be a reformer, also comes as soccer is emerging as a focal point of dissent in the conservative kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has been slow in granting limited enhancement of women’s rights in response to demands by activists. Women in Saudi Arabia were only allowed to drive recently and are still banned from working in a host of professions. Saudi Arabia’s religious police said that women would be allowed to ride bikes and motorbikes in recreational areas provided that they were properly dressed and accompanied by a male relative.

Women will be allowed for the first time to attend sports events in three selected stadiums from early next year, the General Sports Authority said in a statement. The stadiums in Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh are being prepared to accommodate families in early 2018, said the statement, carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

Football fan Sarah Alkashgari, 18, made history after she not only attended but worked at the match in Jeddah. Unaccompanied adult women were allowed to enter the stadium to watch Al-Ahli play Al-Batin. The move is part of an easing of strict rules on gender separation in the kingdom. Ms Alkashgar, a student at King Abdulaziz University, was responsible for greeting guests and showing them to their seats.

"It was about women finally achieving one of their demands. We wanted to enter the stadiums and we did," she explained. "I'm a hardcore football fan. I like playing it and watching it. But I haven't been to a football match before. This was my first one. As a Saudi woman, it was more than a match. It was about contributing in any way I can, even if it was as part of a 200-girl team helping to organise," she continued, adding that watching her team, Al-Ahli, win 5-0 at home was ‘amazing’.

Ms Alkashgari put images from the fit on social media in a tweet that was once favoured greater than 14,000 instances. Most of the feedback in response had been supportive of the trade of coverage, which comes forward of girls being allowed to pressure within the socially conservative kingdom.

Jose Moreno, a sports activities reporter in Seattle, US, offered her his congratulations. “I was surprised with the amount of support and love people have given me. They were supporting the women in Saudi Arabia,” she defined, highlighting that she won messages from the world over, including Ireland, Chile, India, and the United States.

Ms Alkashgari is excited about the drastic changes that are happening in her country. She believes very soon, women will be allowed to drive just like they were allowed to go to the matches. She is amazed at all the empowerment for girls seen in the country. She is proud that Saudi is showing the world what true Islam means. As a young Saudi woman, she is happy to contribute to this change and also to see it happen.