the Football Federation calls on the parliament to allow the presence of female spectators in the stadiums of the country

The Iranian football federation has asked the parliament to pass a law allowing the presence of female spectators in the stadiums, which is prohibited so far, said its secretary general Hassan Kamrani Far, Thursday (October 28th).

“A bill has been sent by the Iranian Football Federation to the Islamic National Assembly. Once approved, the presence of women will be allowed“, he declared during a meeting and whose words are reported by the Tasnim agency.

Parliament is largely dominated by ultraconservatives, and religious leaders have so far opposed such a presence. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iranian women have been denied access to stadiums, officially to protect them from male rudeness.

Fifa has been pressing for years for Iran to open its stadiums to women, but until 2019 Tehran had only allowed a limited number of women (at most a thousand supporters in November) until 2019. 2018) to attend a few meetings.

In October 2019, they had exceptionally been able to attend the match, in the Azadi stadium in Tehran, of the Iranian men’s team against Cambodia in the knockout meeting for the 2022 World Cup. At the beginning of October, the women hoped to find their way back to the stands in Tehran for the qualifying match for the World Cup against South Korea but it was finally played behind closed doors without any explanation given from the Federation.