Continuation of Restrictions; Women's Entry to Stadium Banned for Persepolis vs. Nassaji Match

The Security Council of Mazandaran Province has announced that women's entry will be prohibited for the Persepolis vs. Nassaji match scheduled for Tuesday, and no seating will be allocated for women. According to Iranian media, the series of bans on women's entry to stadiums, which began in Tabriz and Arak, has now reached Qaem Shahr, and women's presence at the Persepolis vs. Nassaji match is banned. In one of the most critical matches of the 26th week of the Premier League, Nassaji will host Persepolis, and now only men will be allowed in the stadium to cheer for their team. The controversial aftermath of the recent match between Persepolis and Sepahan, which took place in Tehran last Wednesday, turned into a clash between female fans of Persepolis and some fans of the Isfahan team, apparently creating a new excuse for the renewed ban on women's entry to the stadium. Ahead of the match on Tuesday in Qaem Shahr, the Security Council of Mazandaran Province issued a statement declaring that women's presence at the Persepolis vs. Nassaji match is prohibited and ticket sales for them will not take place. With this decision, women's attendance at football matches has once again been ruled out, a recurring story that takes on a new form each time from government institutions. Some reports indicate that this decision was made following the tensions and clashes that arose during the Sepahan vs. Persepolis match between the fans of the two teams. According to domestic newspapers, during last week's match at Azadi Stadium, the section for female Persepolis fans was located directly above the Sepahan fans, which caused the two fan groups to be close to each other, leading to verbal abuse and objects being thrown at each other. This recurring incident, which occurs among male fans in most football matches, led the Islamic Republic to once again ban women's entry to certain stadiums and watching football matches. In this context, the Kayhan newspaper, affiliated with Ali Khamenei, also described the events of the Persepolis vs. Sepahan match as 'unacceptable audacity' and wrote: 'The events of the Persepolis and Sepahan match were a good reason for women not to come to the stadium.' The Kayhan newspaper labeled women's attempts to attend the stadium as a 'false demand,' claiming that the effort is to equate 'the ceiling of women's success and dignity' with resembling men 'in behavior and dress.' Similar approaches to Kayhan are not the only opposition to women's entry into stadiums. Others also cite 'the lack of necessary facilities and infrastructure' as an excuse for prohibiting women's presence in stadiums. Mohsen Sadeghi, Secretary-General of the Central Football Association, stated that women's entry to the stadium is prohibited due to the lack of standards and readiness of the stadium, and we cannot accept women at the Imam Khomeini sports complex in Arak during matches. Previously, the Iranian Football League had also announced in a letter to the Football Association of East Azerbaijan Province that women's entry to the 'Yadgar' stadium in Tabriz was prohibited, a decision that sports expert Mehdi Rostampour linked to the controversies surrounding the captain of the Esteghlal team, who embraced a fan that had entered the field, and he associates it with the 'intensification of the crackdown' on women opposing compulsory hijab. The International Football Federation, FIFA, has repeatedly called for the lifting of the ban on women's entry to stadiums by the authorities of the Islamic Republic in recent years. The Iranian Football Federation had previously committed to FIFA that women would have the right to enter stadiums, but since then, despite witnessing women's presence in some stadiums and club matches, selective practices and the allocation of inappropriate and distant seating from the playing field have drawn severe criticism. A female Esteghlal fan stated: 'The women's section in Azadi Stadium is a place where the game cannot be seen at all.' Women fans of Persepolis and Aluminum Arak were present in the special women's section of the stadium side by side. The first presence of women in the stadium to watch the derby; three thousand tickets were only for the second tier. Women's entry to the 'Yadgar' stadium in Tabriz was banned; Mehdi Rostampour: it relates to the penalty of Hossein Hosseini. The name of the second female referee was removed from officiating the derby; the Football Federation did not announce the reason for Mahsa Ghorbani's removal. The removal of Mahnaz Zekayi, the derby referee, was due to the publication of a photo.