Hundreds of women thronged a Saudi sports stadium for the first time to mark Saudi Arabia's national day on Saturday.

The national day is celebrated across the conservative kingdom with a raucous display of concerts, folk dance and fireworks.

The presence of women at the King Fahd stadium in Riyadh marks a departure from previous celebrations in the Gulf kingdom where they are effectively barred from sports arenas by strict rules on segregation of the sexes in public.

Women were allowed to enter the stadium, a previously male-only venue used mostly for football matches, with their families and seated separately from single men to watch a play on Saudi history.

"We hope in the future that there will be no restrictions on our entrance to the stadium," Um Abdulrahman, a woman from the northwestern city of Tabuk, told AFP.

"For many years ago I have hoped that women will be given the same rights as men."

Source: AFP