September 06, 2019
In a major break with the conservative clergy, the Islamic Republic has decided that female soccer fans will be allowed to attend the next World Cup qualifying match to be played in Iran in October, the state news agency quoted a Sports Ministry official as saying August 25.
There has been no denial of the news report in the days since then nor any loud objections, suggesting it will hold.
The decision was made under pressure from Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, the governing body of international soccer. Infantino wrote Iran in June saying he expected Iran to keep its promise made years ago to him that stadiums would be open to women.
While he issued no ultimatum, Iran knew full well that Infantino could act against Iran if it did not open the doors to women. One possibility was that Iran would be booted out of the competition for the 2022 World Cup. However, a much more likely penalty would be that Iran would not be allowed to host any matches but have to play all its “home” games in foreign countries.
A relative handful of women have been allowed access to a relative handful of matches in Iran. They have been relatives of players and officials and employees of the teams and federation, so far as is known. Most Iranian women have been banned from stadiums when men’s teams are playing since shortly after the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Many clerics say women should be kept out of stadiums because the male fans use foul language that women should not have to hear. However, women who have cut their hair and pasted on fake beards to sneak into stadiums have commented that the male fans have cleaned up their talk when they realized women were around.
Other clerics have expressed concern that the bare legs of the players would arouse female fans. However, the games are televised and women can see bare legs much closer up on the TV screen at home than in the stadium.
President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad thought the ban on women was ridiculous and issued an order lifting the ban months after he became president in 2005. Powerful clerics screamed and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi reversed Ahmadi-nejad’s order and publicly rebuked him.
The state news agency has now quoted Deputy Sports Minister Jamshid Taqizadeh as saying, “Women can go to Tehran’s Azadi stadium to watch the match between Iran’s national team and Cambodia in October for the Qatar World Cup qualifier.” Some suspected the deputy minister was commanded to announce the change so that he would have to take the brickbats if the clergy erupted again. Such a major policy change would normally be made by the minister himself.
But so far the clergy have been silent, suggesting that the policy change had been cleared with at least some of the clerics who objected in the past.
Taqizadeh did not announce anything but the basic change. He did not explain if female fans could sit with their families or would be assigned to restricted all-female areas of the stadium. However, he was quoted as saying, “The activation of the infrastructure is under way,” hinting that women would sit in a restricted zone.
Some also noted that Taqizadeh said only that women could attend the Cambodia match. He did not say the change was a permanent one.