In a telephone interview, Mr. Ahmed likened the position of Saudi women today to that of blacks in apartheid-era South Africa and asked why the I.O.C. had not suspended Saudi Arabia from the Games as it banned South Africa from 1964 through the end of apartheid in the early 1990s.

“Even more than political pressure, the expulsion of South Africa from the Olympics was one of the most effective tools for ending apartheid,” Mr. Ahmed said, without referring to the more prominent role accorded sports over all in South African society, or whether an Olympic ban would have the same effect in Saudi Arabia.

“The freedom to practice sports and to exercise is such a very basic issue,” Mr. Ahmed said. “It has to do with physical health. I think that once Saudi women are free to practice sports, that will open up other areas of discussion about their rights.”

The Olympic charter states that “the practice of sport is a human right” and that “any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement.”

A spokeswoman for the I.O.C., Emmanuelle Moreau, indicated in an e-mail that the I.O.C. had no intention of formally censuring countries that did not allow women to participate in the Olympics. She said the organization did not plan to give Saudi Arabia a deadline, as it did with apartheid-era South Africa.

“The I.O.C. strives to ensure the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement are universal and nondiscriminatory,” Ms. Moreau said.

She added about their current policy: “National Olympic committees are encouraged to uphold that spirit in their delegations. The I.O.C. does not give ultimatums nor deadlines, but rather believes that a lot can be achieved through dialogue.”