Iranian women are banned by law from entering soccer stadiums. The Islamic Republic, like its Sunni fundamentalist counterpart in Saudi Arabi, bans mixed-gender seating at soccer game. But in the past few months a daring group of young Iranian women have been challenging the ban, with mixed success.
Iran Focus reports on the latest soccer demonstration in Tehran, which took place on Wednesday. Unfortunately, this time the young women did not gain entrance, but were instead rounded up by the police:
Iran’s State Security Forces attacked female football fans in Tehran on Wednesday after they held a defiant protest against the government decision to ban women from football stadiums.
Dozens of young women, who had bought tickets and hoped to cheer on their national team, were all banned from entering Tehran’s Azadi Stadium...
After being refused entry into the stands, the women organised a demonstration outside the stadium and quickly brought to the scene banners which read, “Azadi Stadium: 100,000 men-only arena” and “We also want to cheer on our national team"... Within minutes, the security forces started to attack the teenage girls and young women. They were all forced into a bus and driven away.
The civil rights restrictions are so mundane, it's sad. But the continued defiance of the young Iranians must be saluted. The real match on Wednesday - and the real heroes - were outside not inside Azadi Stadium.
Excellent post!
I applaud these brave women. They made their opinions known instead of just accepting the injustices of the Iranian government.
Posted by: Aya | March 08, 2006 at 07:29 PM