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Iran criticised for detaining 35 women trying to attend football match
4 March 2018
Thirty five women were detained for trying to attend a football match in Iran - the same day Fifa President Gianni Infantino met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.
The women attempted to watch the Tehran derby between Esteghlal and Persepolis at the 95,000-capacity Azadi (Freedom) Stadium.
Prior to the game there had been calls for women to try to attend the 1 March match to attempt to highlight the extreme conservative social rules that impinge on their rights in the country to the visiting Fifa officials.
The 35, including a 13-year-old girl, were prevented from entering the ground and held by the authorities 'in a proper place' for hours before their release. Iranian women are not permitted to watch men's football matches.
President Infantino, who was on a two-day visit to take part in the 100th anniversary of Iran's football federation, has been widely criticised for attending the 'men-only' game.
Iranian Sport Minister Masoud Soltanifar was also in attendance and a live television broadcast was hastily taken off the air when a journalist asked Soltanifar when would women be allowed to attend games in Iran.
Infantino, who has four daughters himself, said: “I was promised that women in Iran will have access to football stadiums soon.
“He (Rouhani) told me that in countries such as Iran these things take a bit of time.
“There are two ways to deal with this matter – either we criticise, we sanction, we condemn, we don’t speak and we cut relations. Or we go there and have a discussion and try to convince the leaders of the country that they should give (women) access to stadiums. I went for the second option,”
President Infantino has the power to suspend the Iranian Football Federation and prevent Iran from taking part in the World Cup if the ban on women attending matches is not lifted.
In 2013, the disgraced FIFA President Sepp Blatter also met with President Rouhani who said that there would be progress and promised there would be change.
The womenof Iran are still waiting.
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I was promised that women in Iran will have access to football stadiums soon."
Gianni Infantino
Fifa President