Iranian women allowed to watch football match after FIFA pressure

Iranian authorities had publicly contradicted one another on whether or not FIFA and AFC’s letter made it obligatory for them to permit girls into stadiums.

Tehran, Iran – A restricted variety of Iranian girls have been allowed right into a stadium in Tehran to look at a league soccer match for the primary time after strain from worldwide our bodies.

Movies and pictures from the Azadi stadium within the Iranian capital on Thursday confirmed tons of of girls – adorned of their groups’ colors and carrying flags – getting into the stadium by a separate gate from the boys.

The feminine supervisors – who had been sporting head-to-toe robes – had been stationed on the entrance to information the followers in, and had been heard asking them to placed on headscarves as they entered the stadium. The feminine supporters had been seated individually from the boys.

“We’re blissful that you just’re current within the Azadi stadium,” Esteghlal FC’s official account stated in a brief tweet.

It was unclear what number of girls had been allowed to look at the match between Esteghlal FC – certainly one of Tehran and Iran’s largest and hottest groups – and Sanat Mes Kerman FC as there was no affirmation from the authorities.

COVID-19 tips from the Ministry of Well being nonetheless name for soccer stadiums to be crammed to a most 30 % of their general capability. The flagship Azadi stadium seats greater than 80,000 spectators.

Thursday’s match got here after worldwide soccer’s governing physique FIFA and its Asian counterpart, the Asian Soccer Confederation (AFC), known as on Iranian authorities to permit girls into league matches in a joint letter earlier this month.

The precise particulars of the letter are unclear, and Iranian authorities had publicly contradicted one another on whether or not the letter made it obligatory for Iran’s Soccer Federation to permit girls to enter stadiums.

Stadiums should be ‘prepared’

Talking to reporters final week, Iran’s Inside Minister Ahmad Vahidi stated “wherever we will put together stadiums for ladies’s participation there’s no impediment, however the situation is that the stadiums are prepared”.

Ladies had been barred from getting into massive stadiums shortly following the nation’s Islamic revolution in 1979.

Underneath strain from FIFA and others, girls have solely been allowed to attend at a handful of nationwide matches prior to now few years however Thursday was the primary time they had been handled to a league match.

There was a lot debate and preparation every time as authorities have maintained that stadiums should be totally ready – together with having separate ambulances for ladies – to accommodate feminine followers and guarantee their security.

Thursday’s match additionally got here after a fiasco in late March, when girls who bought tickets for an Iran-Lebanon match as a part of the Qatar World Cup qualifier video games had been greeted with pepper spray and heartbreak.