ZCZC
BSP-20
FBL-WC-2022-IRI-WOMEN
Iran to let women attend football World Cup qualifier: ministry
TEHRAN, Aug 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Women fans will be allowed into the
stadium for Iran’s next football World Cup qualifier in October, a sports
ministry official said Sunday, ahead of a deadline to allow their attendance.
FIFA has been stepping up pressure on Iran to ensure women are allowed to
attend qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, reportedly giving it until Saturday
to comply or else face consequences.
An official at the sports ministry said on Sunday that women would be able
to watch Team Melli — as the national team are known — at their next home
game in Tehran’s Azadi stadium.
“Women can go to the Azadi stadium on October 10, 2019 to watch the match
between the Iranian national team and Cambodia for the Qatar World Cup
qualifier,” said Jamshid Taghizadeh, the sports ministry’s deputy for legal
and provincial affairs.
“There is no legal ban (on the presence of women in stadiums] and we must
activate the infrastructure, which is underway,” he said, quoted by state
news agency IRNA. “Our view on women, at all levels, is to prepare the
necessary conditions for women’s success.”
Iran has barred Iranian women spectators at matches since the 1979 Islamic
revolution, with clerics arguing they must be protected from the masculine
atmosphere and sight of semi-clad men.
The authorities have allowed foreign women to go to matches in the country
in the past.
And while a small number of Iranian women have attended select
international matches on previous occasions, others have faced prosecution
for entering stadiums at other times.
Four women were recently detained at Azadi stadium before being released,
according to a report by the semi-official ISNA news agency on August 18.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1918 hrs