Way back in 1979, in the wake of the Islamic Revolution, Iranian women were banned from sporting stadiums while men were competing. That rule was lifted on October 10 this year after Iran copped pressure to alleviate the ban from FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
As soon as the ban was lifted, Iranian women flocked to Tehran’s Azadi Stadium to see their home team take on Cambodia. Tears were shed.
It’s a feat the world can get behind. To witness such apparent joy on the faces of these women is almost bittersweet, it’ll make you cry for two reasons:
- The tangible joy will make you feel sad about all the years these women have missed out on.
- You’ll be completely overwhelmed with second-hand happiness.
Women’s tickets to the match were reportedly sold out in minutes, according to SBS, but Amnesty International isn’t convinced by the event. They’re criticising this life of the ban as a “cynical publicity stunt.”
Whether that’s true or not is yet to be seen. Though Amnesty does have reason to be sceptical. Earlier this year, Iranian woman Esteghlal Khodayari went to court for entering a stadium dressed as a man and without wearing a hijab, according to Amnesty international. She set herself on fire after her court case adjourned, taking her own life.
Such an incident emphasised the desperate need for change, yet there’s been no word on whether Iranian women will be allowed to attend any more live sporting events in the future.
There’s also been criticism on Twitter from the sister of Iran’s national football captain, Maryam Shojaei. According to the ABC, she said it wasn’t good enough for roughy 3,500 tickets to be sold to Iranian women when there were plenty of empty seats in the stadium.
While thousands of tickets were bought by Iranian women, the rest of the world got the best ticket of them all: a front-row seat to their joy. We’re just hoping this isn’t a one-off.