Morals Police Shut Down Women's Soccer Game... in Germany

Der Speigel subtitles its story "The Long Arm of the Morals Police":

The women of Kreuzberg's Aldersimspor football team had been preparing for this day for two years. But in the end it was all for naught. The plan was to play a match against the Iranian women's national team this Friday in Berlin. It would have been the first game by Iranian women in the West since the Islamic revolution of 1979. "Yesterday at 10 p.m. an official e-mail came from the Iranian Football Federation," says Marlene Assmann, one of the organizers. The game was called off, due to "technical problems."

"We are totally disappointed," says Assmann. The 26-year-old plays for BSV Aldersimspor -- a team whose players have Turkish, German, Korean, Greek and Tunisian backgrounds, and which is fifth in the Berlin league. She knew from the very beginning that it wasn't just an ordinary football match. But she didn't realize just what political ramifications her intercultural adventure would take on...

The entire adventure began back in February 2005. Assmann was at the Berlin Film Festival -- she had entered a short film, "The Way is the Game," about her multicultural team. The Iranian director Ayat Najafi was also in Berlin, showing a short film about Iranian women's football. The two very different filmmakers hatched a plan to get the two teams together and to shoot a documentary about the project. "Football Under Cover," is the working title -- they wanted to edit it this September. But now the film will missing the footage of the Iranians in Berlin.

The first game took place on April 28, 2006 and was the first proper match the Iranian women had ever played against other footballers and in front of fans. The players -- one side in red the other in white -- all played with specially designed sports headscarves [see photo]. Only women were allowed into the stadium, and they all screamed their lungs out -- the result was 2:2. Normally the female players are only allowed to train in sports halls -- and without an audience. And Iran's many female football fans are not allowed into stadiums...

"I'm not surprised by the cancellation," says Nasrin Wassiri. The women's rights activist fled her native Iran 23 years ago and now works as a freelance journalist for Berlin's Radio Multikulti station. She thinks the "technical problem" is just an excuse. "Iran is afraid that the opposition could use the game to protest against the Iranian government." And she is right, Iranian women exiles had announced a demonstration to take place before the game kicked off on Friday, to call attention to the situation of women in Iran...

But Wassiri thinks the demonstration was just one of the reasons. "The Berlin players wanted to play without wearing headscarves, in shorts, and men were to be allowed into the stadium. They didn't really give careful consideration to what that means." Sorki says that this was "absolutely ok," as these are the "German rules..."

Then there was the problem of the flags: Which Iranian flags would be allowed into the stadium? The official flag of the Islamic Republic has the word "Allah" on a white stripe in the center. "There are also flags with Iran written on them, or no writing, or even some with a peace dove," Assmann explains. Even the dove could have been interpreted as an affront to the Iranian embassy.

It remains to be seen whose standards of women's rights will win out. Or is it simply a tie? Right now the Iranian officials seem to be winning.