June 28, 2019
FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, says people protesting against Iran’s ban on women entering stadiums should no longer be removed from stadiums around the world—and it has given Iran a deadline for permitting women fans to see games.
FIFA has long had a ban on spectators at soccer games engaging in political activities, which for years has included protests against Iran’s ban on women. But FIFA opposes Iran’s ban and now says protests against the ban do not qualify as political.
FIFA was specifically addressing an incident June 15 at a Women’s World Cup game in France. Stadium security officials intervened in Grenoble during a game between New Zealand and Canada when they spotted T-shirts supporting for women’s rights in Iran.
“FIFA believes that the message to allow women into football stadiums in Iran is a social, not political, matter and so the message on the front of the T-shirts worn by two fans is not against the FIFA rules, which rules always need to be applied with a sense of proportion,” FIFA said in a statement June 18.
“As such, in this specific case, the fans should not have been asked to remove their T-shirts or to leave the stadium by local security, even if there were other messages on the back of their T-shirts. FIFA will do its best to ensure that any similar situations do not occur at future matches during the competition.” The message on the back of the T-shirts protested against Iran’s dress code.
FIFA campaigns for women to be given access to games in Iran. “The promotion of gender equality is a priority for FIFA, as per the statutes, and we remain fully cognizant of this, particularly during the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” the governing body said.
News reports say that women trying to enter a friendly match in Tehran between Iran and Syria last month were physically beaten, not just escorted out of the stadium as has been the norm in the past.
Three days after FIFA’s formal statement, FIFA President Gianni Infantino went even further, demanding that Iran provide assurances women will be allowed to attend 2022 World Cup qualifiers held in Iran.
They will begin in September.
Infantino faced criticism for attending a Tehran game in March 2018 where women were shut out of the stadium. When he returned to Iran in November for the Asian Champions League final, hundreds of selected Iranian women were allowed to watch Persepolis play the Kashima Antlers of Japan.
“I was able to witness real and tangible progress with regard to genuine participation of women in football,” Infantino wrote June 21 to Iranian soccer federation president Mehdi Taj in a letter obtained from FINA headquarters by The Associated Press.
“The fact that these important first steps were made, and that I was able to witness it personally, makes it all the more disappointing that it was not possible to keep up the positive momentum and to continue with similar progress,” Infantino added.
Infantino highlighted the June 6 friendly between Iran and Syria when “the gates were closed to female spectators and when, it would appear, a number of women seeking to attend the match were detained by security forces for a number of hours.” He didn’t mention that several of the women said they were beaten.
“Unfortunately, this [the arrests] is, I also have to say, not in line with the commitments given to us in March 2018 by President Rohani when we were assured that important progress would be made on this matter soon.”
“Whilst we are aware of the challenges and cultural sensitivities, we simply have to continue making progress here, not only because we owe it to women all over the world, but also because we have a responsibility to do so, under the most basic principles set out in the FIFA Statutes,” Infantino wrote.
“In the circumstances, I would be very grateful if you could inform FIFA, at your earliest convenience but no later than 15 July 2019, as to the concrete steps which both the FFIRI [the Iranian soccer federation] and the Iranian state authorities will now be taking in order to ensure that all Iranian and foreign women who wish to do so will be allowed to buy tickets and to attend the matches of the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which will start in September 2019.”
Infantino’s predecessor, Sepp Blatter, paid lip service to women’s rights issues, but never gave Iran a deadline, as Infantino has just done.
