The first ever women's wrestling match in Saudi Arabia will be held on Thursday, organisers said, the latest unlikely event staged in the kingdom as it attempts to shrug off an ultra-conservative image.

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) said that its "superstars" Natalya and Lacey Evans will face off in the pay-per-view event which will also feature former boxing champion Tyson Fury as he takes on Braun Strowman.

The organisers said the two women had done battle in some tough bouts recently, including one that Evans, a former US Marine, "won by powerbombing her foe off the side of the stage and through a table".

The bout at King Fahd Stadium will be an incongruous scene in a country where women are generally obliged to wear the black "abaya" cloak.

However, Saudi Arabia is boosting entertainment that allows citizens to have fun, in what some see as an attempt to blunt public frustration over an economic downturn and high youth unemployment.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019

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