The International Herald Tribune revives a largely dormant issue in the Olympics that was once a major source of contention: gender discrimination. In an op-ed piece today in the I.H.T. (which is wholly owned by The New York Times), the director of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs, Ali Al-Ahmed, cites this year’s Olympic slogan, “One World, One Dream,” and writes, “This dream, however, will not be realized by women in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries that ban women from sports domestically and internationally.”

Al-Ahmed notes that despite the Olympic Charter’s prohibition against any form of discrimination, including sex discrimination, a handful of countries bar women from participating in Olympic sports for cultural and religions reasons and will field male-only teams at the Beijing Games. Those countries include Brunei, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Other countries restrict women’s participation in sports that require “immodest dress.” At the 2004 Athens Games, he points out, Iran’s only female athletes competed in pistol and rifle shooting.