Iranian women had been banned from attending most sporting events involving men since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, but after the country announced it would ease these restrictions, hundreds of women were able to go to a local soccer match for the first time in over 40 years.
Photo: Getty Images.
The women’s attendance at the local game was at the Azadi stadium in Tehran, when the local club Esteghlal FC and the visiting team, Sanat Mes Kerman FC faced each other, where some 500 fans attended, according to the Fars news agency.
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Photo: Getty Images.
At the football match, the women sang “Girl in Blue”a tribute to Sahar Khodayari, a fan of this sport who in 2019 disguised herself as a man to enter a game, but was discovered and arrested for “violating the law of chastity, immoral behavior and insulting law enforcement.”
Throughout the match, the women were separated from the men in the stadium and even entered through a special entrance that was in a parking lot. Despite this, they were very happy and even shouting and crying with joy.
When Sahar Khodayari learned that she would be sentenced to six months in prison, she stood in front of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court and blew herself up in protest of what happened to her, dying shortly after.
Photo: LatFem.
Iranian women have been able to enter a few matches, although only at the national team level. In fact, this year they managed to attend the moment in which their country secured qualification for the World Cup in November in Qatar.
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It should be recalled that in 2019, they allowed thousands of women to attend a World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Cambodia in that year, after pressure from human rights groups and the sport’s world governing body, FIFA. That year, FIFA came under increasing pressure to force Iran to lift the ban on women entering sports stadiums in connection with Sahar’s death.
Is this a contribution to the fight for gender equality in that country?
Source: UPSOCL.