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Precisely one week after the nationwide Iranian males’s soccer group tied South Korea 1-1 in a vital 2022 World Cup qualifier within the empty Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Saudi followers — each female and male — loudly cheered at Prince Faisal Bin Fahad Stadium in Riyadh as Saudi Al Hilal membership took on Iran’s Persepolis within the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League.
Just some years in the past, it could have been onerous to consider that in girls in Saudi Arabia, the place they didn’t even have the correct to drive till not too long ago, can now watch soccer video games in individual. However whereas Iran enjoys a way more progressive and strong civil society than the dominion, Iranian girls nonetheless are denied the correct to look at sports activities occasions in stadiums — a ban that has persevered for the previous 40 years.
Previous to the Iran-South Korea match, world soccer governing physique FIFA issued an ultimatum to the Iranian Soccer Federation on Sept. 9 that ladies needed to be allowed within the stadium, or it could ban Iran from internet hosting matches.
On Oct. 10, the Iranian Soccer Federation formally introduced that the match in opposition to Korea could be held Oct. 12 with none spectators, Beforehand, that they had introduced that as many as 10,000 totally vaccinated spectators could be allowed to enter the stadium.
“After a variety of discussions, we determined that the sport could be with none spectators,” Hassan Kamrani Far, secretary common of the Iranian Soccer Federation, mentioned on Oct. 11. “We must observe a variety of coronavirus protocols and must ask [fans] to point out [negative COVID-19] PCR assessments.”
These remarks have been met with skepticism, and plenty of followers have been of the opinion that the federation had barred spectators as a result of it couldn’t meet FIFA’s demand for feminine spectators.
Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of late President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who all the time supported the presence of ladies in stadiums, mentioned on Oct. 11, “I hope FIFA just isn’t fooled and follows up on this problem. This can be a ploy.”
Hashemi, who known as for boycotting the June 18 presidential elections, added, “Coronavirus is an excuse. They wished to forestall girls from going to the stadium, they usually used coronavirus as an excuse.”
Feminine followers have been allowed into the stands for the primary time on Oct. 10, 2019 within the match between the Iranian and Cambodian nationwide soccer groups when average president Hassan Rouhani was in workplace. However the moderates and reformists have been changed by hardliners who’ve little interest in such breakthroughs.
Finally, the nationwide Iranian soccer group tied the South Koreans 1-1. Nonetheless, lower than per week afterward Oct. 16, Persepolis FC was destroyed 3-0 by the Al Hilal Saudi Soccer Membership — which has skilled Brazilian and French gamers on their roster — in Riyadh.
Saudi girls have been supporting Al Hilal from the stands of Faisal Bin Fahad Stadium alongside males. Whereas some have been totally veiled, others weren’t sporting a headband in any respect. Saudi girls, many sporting blue Al-Hilal T-shirts, cheered for his or her group with enthusiasm. Their deafening applause could possibly be heard by the Persepolis gamers, who’ve been enjoying with out spectators for greater than a 12 months.
This prompted widespread response from Iranians on social media, who criticized their leaders for not granting minimal rights for girls, and posted footage of Saudi feminine followers within the stadium who weren’t sporting hijabs. Head coverings have been obligatory for girls in public for the reason that 1979 revolution.
Whereas Iran has a powerful historical past of social actions to result in extra rights for girls, activists have but to make a breakthrough on this problem.
“The efforts of ladies and civil society activists in Iran lately haven’t led to a basic change within the restrictions on entry to stadiums,” Iranian journalist Fahimeh Miri informed Al-Monitor. “Sadly, there’s very severe resistance to creating a gap for girls’s rights within the Islamic Republic.”
It’s not clear whether or not the Iranian Soccer Federation’s determination was to repel FIFA strain to confess feminine followers or over considerations of implementing vital well being protocols. Nonetheless, the juxtaposed scenes of the empty Azadi Stadium in Tehran and the cheering Saudi girls on the Riyadh stadium frustrate many ladies’s rights activists in Iran.
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