August 19, 2016
Olympic security personnel questioned a female Iranian volleyball fan when she sat in the stands Saturday for an Iran match holding a large sign and wearing a T-shirt that said, “Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums.”
Darya Safai, sat in a front-row courtside seat and broke down in tears while she was questioned. She said Olympic officials told her they would ask her to leave if she didn’t put her sign away, which she finally did. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) bans political statements at the games.
Over the next 48 hours, Safai and women’s advocates pressed the IOC, saying Safai’s issue was a gender question not a political issue, and that she was simply supporting what the IOC advocated. The IOC then relented and on Monday Safai attended Iran’s game against Russia holding up her sign.
“They said I can stay, I am here to stay,” she told reporters Monday. She joyfully posed for photos with fans.
Born in Tehran but living now in Belgium, Safai is the founder and director of “Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums!” and an activist against gender discrimination.
In 2012, the revolutionary ban on women attending soccer matches in Iran was extended to volleyball. Since then, women have been trying to change the rule.
USA Volleyball chairwoman Lori Okimura has been outspoken on the issue”— she even brought her own “Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums” T-shirt along to Brazil — and checked in with Safai Saturday to make sure she was okay.
“This is not a political statement. This is not a political issue,” Okimura said. “This, to me, is not about politics, it’s about gender. Volleyball has always been about equality, why now are we not sending that same consistent message?”
The Associated Press said television shots from Rio showed Safai with her sign in the stands and that the TV censors in Tehran, who air the games on a time delay so they can cut out shots with ill-clad female fans, missed the sign and allowed it to be seen in Iran. The AP said women in Iran took to social media in support of Safai.