Efforts to lift a ban; families allowed to watch Iran-Portugal game
While criticism continues over restrictions on Iranian women entering stadiums to watch men's sports matches, the Iranian government has issued permission for families to attend Azadi Stadium to watch the Iranian national team's match against Portugal.
Iranian domestic news agencies reported on Sunday, July 25, that the director of the 100,000-seat stadium has issued a waiver allowing families to attend the stadium and watch the Iranian national team's game on a 1,200-square-meter screen.
This is the only chance for Iranian women to attend the stadium and watch football because the police, due to pressure from traditional clerics and the judiciary, have banned women from attending football matches.
Last week, for the first time, Iranian women managed to enter the stadium minutes before the start of the match between the Iranian national team and Spain and watch the game on a screen, in a plan that was canceled and then confirmed again.
This experience was reflected in various ways, including in the Washington Post, which reported that the police had blocked the entrances to the stadium despite government permission, but an hour before the game, the doors of the stadium were opened to families by order of the Minister of the Interior, and Iranian women went to the stadium to watch a football game after 38 years.
In recent days, as the Iranian national football team plays in the World Cup, various measures have been taken to lift the ban on Iranian women entering stadiums; including 18 prominent Iranian women signing a letter asking FIFA, the world football federation, to pressure the government of the Islamic Republic to lift this ban.
Many women hope that the football show at Azadi Stadium on a screen in the presence of families, and of course, FIFA pressure and global repercussions of the ban on Iranian women entering stadiums during the World Cup in Russia, will be a start to lifting this ban.
Source: Voice of America
