They had to sit well apart from the men and the stadium was practically empty, but thousands of Iranian women in merry jester hats and face paint blew horns and cheered on Thursday at the first FIFA soccer match they were allowed to freely attend in decades.
In what many considered a victory in a decades-long fight by women in Iran to attend sporting events, they wrapped themselves in the country’s vibrant red, green and white colors and watched with excitement as Iran thrashed Cambodia 14-0 in their 2022 World Cup Asia Group C qualifier at Tehran’s Azadi, or Freedom, Stadium.
“We are so happy that finally we got the chance to go to the stadium. It’s an extraordinary feeling,” said Zahra Pashaei, a 29-year-old nurse who has only known games from television. “At least for me, 22 or 23 years of longing and regret lies behind this.”
Photo: AFP
As one woman shouted from a passing minibus before the match: “We are here, finally!”
So far, Iran’s leadership is not willing to go as far some women would like. Authorities announced they would allow women to attend only international soccer matches.
Women have been banned from many sporting events in Iran since 1981, during the early years of the country’s Islamic Revolution. Iran is the world’s last nation to bar women from soccer matches. Saudi Arabia recently began letting women see games.
Photo: AFP
Under pressure from FIFA, Iran let a carefully controlled number of women into the stadium, allocating them 4,000 tickets in a venue that seats about 80,000 people, and arranged for 150 female security personnel in black chadors to watch them. They sat at least 200m from the few thousand men at the match.
Iranian state television aired footage of women cheering and commentators acknowledged their presence.
“There can be no stopping or turning back now,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement. “History teaches us that progress comes in stages, and this is just the beginning of a journey.”
Iran faced a potential ban from FIFA international matches if it did not allow women into the game. The pressure from FIFA and Iran’s soccer-loving public has grown since last month, when an Iranian woman detained for dressing as a man to sneak into a match set herself on fire and died upon learning that she could get six months in prison.
The self-immolation of 29-year-old Sahar Khodayari, who became known as the “Blue Girl” for her love of the Iran team, whose uniforms are blue, shocked Iranian officials and the public.
At the match on Thursday, an Islamic Republic News Agency reporter posted a video online of chador-wearing officers trying to grab a woman she said had a sign in Khodayari’s honor.
The crowd could be heard chanting: “Let her go!”
The reporter wrote on Twitter that the woman slipped away from officers and ran off.
Shiite clerics, citing Islamic law, say that men and women must be segregated at public events, and women should be kept out of men’s sporting events.
Infantino said that “FIFA now looks more than ever toward a future when all girls and women wishing to attend football matches in Iran will be free to do so, and in a safe environment.”
Taiwan face Australia at the National Stadium in Kaohsiung in their Group B match on Tuesday next week.
Additional reporting by staff writer
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Tennis players are facing an unexpected opponent at the Madrid Open. A stomach virus or food poisoning has affected Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Marin Cilic and others, raising concerns. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka avoided an upset by Naomi Osaka on the court on Monday and said she is trying to avoid illness by sticking to a diet of chicken breasts, rice and salad. The rumor among the players was bad shrimp tacos were to blame. Sabalenka knocked on wood for luck and said, “So far, so good. I heard that I have to avoid those tacos,” she laughed, adding “I stick to the
RSS