Iran yesterday allowed hundreds of local women to attend the Asian Champions League final in Tehran in a possible step towards ending women’s decades-old exclusion from top soccer match
Helen Popper in Dubai
November 11 2018 6:30 PM
Iran yesterday allowed hundreds of local women to attend the Asian Champions League final in Tehran in a possible step towards ending women’s decades-old exclusion from top soccer matches in the country.
The semi-official news agency Tasnim said an unspecified number of women had entered the Azadi Stadium to watch Persepolis seek to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit against Japan’s Kashima Antlers and claim their first continental crown.
The news agency said fans around the stadium cheered as the women entered the stands set aside for them, which an official said had a capacity of 850 seats. The women had joined in with chanting in support of Persepolis, Iran’s best-supported club.
Iranian women and girls have not been allowed to attend any men’s sporting events in the country for much of the 39 years since the Islamic revolution, and have not been granted access to matches involving top clubs since 1981.
However, in a rare move last month, about 100 women were allowed to watch a friendly soccer match between Iran and Bolivia.
As 80,000 people gathered at the Azadi to watch Saturday’s game, Iranian social media reports said most of the women who had been let into the stadium were relatives of players or members of Iran’s female football and futsal teams and football federation employees.
Female fans from other countries have previously been permitted to attend games at the Azadi Stadium.
World soccer’s governing body FIFA had demanded women be allowed to attend top-level games. Iranian campaign group Open Stadiums has been lobbying for access to venues for women in Iran, and representatives of the group met with FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura last week to deliver a petition signed by more than 200,000 people.
Speaking before Saturday’s game, a spokesperson for the group said overturning women’s exclusion «has been our dream for decades»
«We are always excluded from public happiness and excitement,» the spokesperson told reporters by e-mail on condition of anonymity.
The restrictions on Iranian women that were relaxed for the match against Bolivia were quickly reinstated under pressure from hardliners within the government.
Sunday Independent
Phil Stewart and Nayera Abdallah Mahmoud in Washington and Cairo Turkey has given recordings related to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, the United States, Germany, France and Britain, said Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan yesterday.
Ben Farmer in Kabul The home of Afghan start-up Buber may boast more security precautions than the average California internet firm, but the Silicon Valley zeal of its staff is just the same.
Raf Sanchez Houthi rebel fighters have taken up positions on the roof of one of Hodeidah’s main civilian hospitals, Amnesty has warned, as fighting in the crucial Yemeni port city intensified despite calls for a…
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered seven Pharaonic Age tombs near the…
A policeman in Hobart showed off his cricket skills…
Tributes have been paid to three adults and a one-year-…
Police in West Yorkshire were involved in one of…
World leaders have gathered to mark the end of World War One 100 years ago,…
At least one topless woman ran out towards…
World leaders have gathered to mark the end of World…
The first election workers have begun the enormous task of recounting…
President Donald Trump has joined French President…
World leaders including Emmanuel Macron,…
A powerful wildfire in northern California…
President Donald Trump has slammed…
Donald Trump says Michelle Obama has made controversial comments about him to…
Joe Allen captured the terrifying moment he…
Supermarket Iceland has seen its Christmas…
A knife-wielding man has stabbed two people,…
Tens of thousands of people have fled their…
Sheriff Geoff Dean of Ventura County…
