Iranian women protest against ban on attending football gamesJune 16, 2018 - 16:54 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Iranian women, who have been banned from soccer stadiums in the Islamic Republic since 1980, have taken their protest to the globe's biggest sporting event: the World Cup, NDTV reports. For the first time in the tournament's history, female soccer fans staged demonstrations inside a stadium, hoisting posters against the ban during Friday, June 15's match between Iran and Morocco in Russia's cultural capital. "Iran doesn't want to see happy women in the stadium," said Sara, 34, a member of a group called OpenStadiums that works in Iran to overturn the ban. She, along with the other Iranian women in this story, spoke on the condition of partial anonymity out of fears of being arrested upon returning to Iran. "They're worried about what else we'll want." During her protest she wore a hijab - rare for her when traveling outside of Iran - to disguise her face and so that she would look no different than the women back home. "It was amazing to see how many people reacted positively, taking pictures [of my banner]," she said. Women in Iran have been forbidden from attending all-male sporting events since a year after the 1979 Islamic revolution, but last year authorities overturned a ban on women attending volleyball games. That change happened after British-Iranian student Ghoncheh Ghavami spent more than three months in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, because she tried to get into a volleyball match. Many hope the volleyball decision is a signal that women will soon be allowed to watch the country's favorite sport. Top stories Armenian gymnast, Olympic bronze medalist Artur Davtyan has reached the finals of the World Cup. Gor Manvelyan has denied reports alleging that he has expressed a desire to one day play for the French national team. Roma midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan is not considering FC Spartak Moscow as his next haven, according to fresh reports. 10 Armenian lifters will compete in the 2021 World Championships scheduled to be held from 7 to 17 December in Tashkent. Partner news | Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. |