40 Minutes of Censorship of Football on Islamic Republic's State TV; Fear of a Female Referee

The newspaper 'Shargh' reported on the performance of the Islamic Republic's state television in broadcasting live matches of the Asian Cup, stating that due to the fact that the central referee of the India vs. Australia match was a woman, the censorship of the game's images lasted 'almost 40 minutes.' According to this report, the broadcast of the opening ceremony of this tournament was also accompanied by censorship, while much of that ceremony did not involve the excuse of 'coverage issues' regarding the participants' clothing. In the match between India and Australia, during the first half, live images were repeatedly cut, and instead, archival images were broadcast. The reason was the central referee of this game, who was a woman. 'Yoshimi Yamashita' became the first female referee in the history of the Asian Cup by officiating the match between Australia and India on Saturday. The Asian Football Confederation described this appointment as a 'significant appointment.' Yamashita, 37, who obtained her FIFA refereeing badge in 2015, was the first professional female referee from Japan and has officiated matches in her country's Premier League and the Asian Champions League. Accordingly, Iranian television had no problem broadcasting wide shots of the match with the female central referee, and the images were not cut; however, whenever the main director presented a close-up of this Japanese referee, the television censored the images and switched to broadcasting archival footage. Broadcasting images of female spectators in the stands instead of the female referee in formal attire was among the criticisms this newspaper had against state television. According to this newspaper, after 40 minutes of censorship, the second half was eventually broadcast without censorship and included images of the female referee, which raised many criticisms and questions. Censorship of women on state television has a long history, ranging from the wrists of guests to live images of global ceremonies in the record of censorship of the Islamic Republic's state television. The statement of the Iranian Writers' Association on the occasion of the Day of Struggle Against Censorship, in an interview with Jamshid Barzegar, highlights the expansion of 'secret' governance; even oil production statistics have been stamped as confidential. Somayeh Haqnegahdar told Voice of America that the pressure from the Islamic Republic on artists aims to control and censor them. The Iranian Writers' Association stated that censorship is one of the tools of the regime to suppress social movements. A new wave of censorship in cyberspace; the judiciary has deemed 'any content' that supports Israel as a 'crime.'