Ali Karimi Expresses Hope for Women's Entry into Stadiums

Ali Karimi, a prominent football player and head coach of Naft Tehran, stated in an interview with ISNA news agency: "I wish the conditions could be created with the help of Hassan Rouhani and the officials of the Football Federation for women to enter stadiums." He also added that "this is the demand of millions of female fans who want to watch football matches and other sports up close" and expressed hope that the necessary groundwork for this action would be laid. Previously, in June, Masoud Shojaei, captain of the national football team, had asked the President to create conditions for women to also watch football matches up close. This issue was raised during a meeting between the technical staff and players of the national team with Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, where Mr. Rouhani praised the national team's performance in their "decisive qualification" for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The report of this meeting stated: "Shojaei called for attention to the national teams' camp and its completion and asked the President to create conditions for women to also watch football up close." However, this part of Shojaei's remarks was omitted from the report published by the Presidential Information Office. In this regard, ISNA reported that "the quote attributed to Masoud Shojaei in the meeting with the President regarding allowing women into the stadium was not published by this news agency. It is clear that ISNA is only responsible for the news published in the official output of this news agency." The request from the national team captain received widespread attention on social media. Some users questioned whether it is possible to hope for effective and practical measures for women's presence in stadiums when even the request for women's entry into football stadiums is censored. On the other hand, Masoud Soltanifar, the Minister of Sports and Youth, stated in May that the groundwork for women's presence in stadiums would be prepared and that this event would not be unexpected. Following this, the Coordination Council of Hezbollah declared the entry of women into stadiums as "unlawful." According to ILNA, Hossein Allahkaram, the head of this council, announced on his Instagram page that he has filed a complaint against the Ministry of Sports and Youth for bringing hundreds of female spectators to men's volleyball matches. His reference was to two volleyball matches that had been held in Tehran a few weeks earlier, where a limited number of wives and family members of players and officials of the Volleyball Federation managed to watch the games from inside the stadium. The presence of women in stadiums and sports fields in Iran to watch competitions has been banned since shortly after the 1979 Revolution. Civil and human rights activists in Iran have always protested this issue.