In Iran, female soccer fans
celebrated a modest victory on Thursday in their enduring struggle to gain
entry to stadiums and watch men's games, a battle marked by decades of
near-total exclusion and harassment.
A photograph circulated on social
media, shared by the advocacy group Open Stadiums, depicting three female fans
inside Tehran's Azadi Stadium during one of the country's significant matches
between city rivals Persepolis and Esteghlal. For this event, up to 3,000
tickets were reportedly allocated for women.
A historic milestone for women's rights activists, and the battle for equal access to public spaces is set to persist, declared the activist group in a social media post.
The longstanding prohibition preventing
women from attending men's soccer games and other sports events in Iran has
been in place since the 1979 Islamic revolution. While there have been
instances of selected games allowing female attendance in recent years, Open
Stadiums highlighted issues such as limited ticket availability and harassment
from morality police.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino acknowledged his role in the campaign, mentioning his efforts, including advocating for women to attend the 2018 Asian Champions League at the same Tehran stadium. This breakthrough followed Iranian fans raising the issue during the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Thanks to the ongoing dialogue
between FIFA and the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation, progress is
being made, wrote Infantino in a post on his Instagram account.
The FIFA leader disclosed that he
engaged in discussions with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in New York three
months ago, focusing on 'the development of women’s football in the country and
the progress made regarding the presence of women in football stadiums.'
FIFA's statutes expressly prohibit
discrimination by member federations.
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