Saudi authorities backed off in the last minute and decided to maintain a long-standing taboo by barring women from entering a stadium to attend a concert, the Saudi Arabic language daily Alwatan reported on Friday.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most feared and influential Islamic authority in the conservative kingdom, said early this week it would allow women into the Prince Abdul Aziz bin Musaed Sports city in the central town of Hail to watch the concert marking Eid Al Fitr.

But the Commission said it would construct a concrete barrier to separate women from men during the festival which was organised on Thursday night.

It said the decision to admit women to the stadium for the first time in Saudi Arabia’s history followed an agreement with the organisers banning mobile phones and any “sound effects” during the festival.

“Women were barred from last night’s concern just two hours before it started despite previous assurances that they would be let in,” Alwatan said.

“The organisers backed off in the last minute…the Commission spokesman Sheikh Mutlaq Nabit said the decision to bar them came from the Prince’s office.”

The paper said the organisers were planning to hold a similar concert for women and children on Friday night at a local park instead of the stadium.