Women Can Now Watch Football At Stadiums –Govt

Women Can Now Watch Football At Stadiums –Govt

It is not in all countries that women have been freely allowed to watch football at stadiums, it has emerged.

In fact, agency report monitored by The Eagle today, indicates that women may be allowed to watch football matches in stadiums for the first time in Iran any time hence.

A report quoting the head of the country’s football association unveiled the news today.

Before the latest development, they had only been allowed in the stands in a few exceptions, most recently at the friendly match against Russia.

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“Fortunately, the country’s Security Council has approved this issue and set up a working group to decide on its implementation,” Iranian Football Federation chief Mehdi Taj reportedly said on the sidelines of an event.

Though there no further clarifications however, how this would come about, there were indications that the recent posture must have followed pressures from world governing body FIFA.

The country’s arch-conservative clergy argued that women had no business in stadiums with fanatical male fans, but with FIFA’s pressure, such hardline stance is about to the relaxed, it has appeared.

According to the report, Iran’s powerful Security Council, which is above the parliament, deals with defence issues and the protection of the Islamic Revolution, its decisions final after they are approved by the religious leader.

The Eagle reports on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner saying women and girls continue to be treated as second class citizens in Iran, citing domestic violence, thousands of marriages of girls aged between 10 and 14 each year and continuing entrenched discrimination in law and practice.

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“One of the most concerning issues in Iran today when it comes to the rights of women and girls is the issue of child marriage,” Javaid Rehman, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, said in the report believed to have been presented to the 47-member body on 9 March.

Iran also faced a wave of riots last year, following the death of a Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini.

Her death followed arrest by Iran’s morality police for breach of the country’s strict dress code.

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Chants of “Woman, Life, Freedom!,” had reverberated around the country following.

According to Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division, of Human Rights Watch,  Rothna Begum

“Women have been fighting against compulsory dress code for decades and are now openly defying it as an act of resistance by simply going out to live their lives without the hijab. While the dress code is the most visible form of discrimination, it is just one aspect of the systemic discrimination they face”.

But that women can now watch football at stadiums, could be a clear indication of change.