Freedom at last for Iran’s football-loving women

For women in Iran, cheering on their team live at the stadium is an impossible dream — they are banned from entering it.

While Iran has been coming under more and more pressure to admit women to football games, they have shown no signs of budging.

ST PETERSBURG: The courtyard of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is a dash of red and white. There are a few hours left for Iran’s game against Morocco and fans of both teams have descended upon the courtyard in numbers. In the middle, a group of Iranian fans have started their usual song and dance routine, a pre-match ritual every time their national team plays. But this time, there is something different — the cacophony they create has an extra layer to it, a higher-pitched one. In the middle of the dozen or so men, chanting with every bit of vigour as their male counterparts, are four female fans.

For women in Iran, cheering on their team live at the stadium is an impossible dream — they are banned from entering it. One of the many farcical reasons for the ban is that the country’s ultra-conservative officials do not want women to hear men swear — one wonders why they did not enforce a ban on swearing!

ALSO READ | Saudi women in Russia for FIFA World Cup 2018, reinforce new image

A number of women have tried fighting the decree, infiltrating stadiums wearing fake beards and moustaches. In Russia though, they are finally free to wander the grounds as they like. Faeze Dorze is unrecognisable from the picture on her Fan Id card and it’s not because of the green, white and red paint she has on her face. In that photo, she is wearing a hijab but she has chosen to let her hair flow free in the breeze outside the St Petersburg stadium. When the 27-year-old is back home in Tehran, her husband goes to games while she watches on television — she sometimes catches online streams too. But on Friday, she is finally getting to accompany him. “This is my first game,” she proudly proclaims. “I’ve never tried to go to one at home. I know someone who tried. She dressed as a man and tried. But they caught her and sent her back.”

“I don’t think the reason we can’t go to stadiums is purely religious,” she says. “Their reasoning is that the men say bad things inside the stadium and they don’t want women to hear. But then maybe, if all women go, the men won’t use such language.”

While Iran has been coming under more and more pressure to admit women to football games, they have shown no signs of budging. In the World Cup qualifier against Syria last year, Iranian women were refused entry while Syrian women were admitted, prompting female parliamentarians to speak out.

In March, soon after FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s return from a visit to the country, he claimed to have discussed the issue with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. The latter’s office was quick to issue a denial.

Caught amidst all this, a new generation of female fans are being forced to worship their idols from afar. Newsha Lzargar is 14 and has been a hardcore football fan since she was six. On Friday afternoon, she was excited at finally being able to watch her favourite player in the world live — Iranian captain Masoud Shojaei. “Once I tried to go,” she says. “I put on a fake moustache, the white jersey and was going to get out. But my father stopped me. He was afraid that I would get arrested if I was caught.”

“I hope so,” she says, smiling nervously when asked if she thought she’d be able to start going to games in Iran soon. Tehran’s stadium, that the national team calls home, is called Azadi – freedom. Yet for their women to enjoy that at a football game, they have to catch a flight to another continent. Irony abounds!