When I was teaching in the UAE, I learned about a woman who started her own ice hockey team. (I love ice hockey. Played it -- VERY badly -- and in many ways it reminds of basketball). Here's a story of the first Saudi women's team playing in Amman:

Jeddah United (JU), the first Saudi women's club basketball team, is in Amman this week on an invitation from Riyadi Club's women's team.

Saudi Arabia and Brunei are the two countries barring women from their Olympic delegations, and women's sports is banned in Saudi public schools and there are no federations that organise women's sport.

Despite this, Lina Al Maeena and her husband set up the Jeddah United Sports Company (JUSC) in 2006, with one of the main aims being the promotion of female sport in the Kingdom, with the eventual hope of producing Olympic-standard athletes.