Before the soccer match in Tehran even began on Saturday (Nov. 10), Iranian women already felt the thrill of victory. For the first time since a de facto ban on female attendance was instituted after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, about 1,000 women were permitted to attend a live soccer game at a public stadium. [...]
Notably, women from other countries are allowed to attend games at the stadium in Tehran. For example, last year, Syrian women were permitted entrance to a qualifying match for the World Cup while Iranians of the same gender protested outside. Some local women had purchased tickets but were barred entrance because the sale was due to a “technical glitch,” organizers said. [...]
For women and men in other countries who aren’t excluded from this kind of public participation, it’s difficult to imagine just what attending such events signifies, and what it might feel like to be included for the first time. In a piece in The Lily in January, Iranian sports fan Yeganeh Rezaian wrote that her “life changed forever” the first time she had the “breathtaking experience” of attending a game at a major stadium when she watched the National Basketball Association’s Golden State Warriors play in the Oakland Arena in California.
No comments:
Post a Comment