Iran has detained 35 women for trying to attend a football match.<\/p>\n
They tried to go to a game between Tehran teams Esteqlal and Persepolis. Iran said they were temporarily held and would be released after the match.<\/p>\n
Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, was also in attendance, along with Iranian Sport Minister Masoud Soltanifar.<\/p>\n
A live broadcast was taken off the air when a journalist asked Mr Soltanifar when women would be allowed to attend football matches.<\/p>\n
According to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Iranian interior ministry spokesman Seyyed Salman Samani said the female football fans were not arrested – but transferred to a “proper place” by police.<\/p>\n
Earlier reports said two women were held.<\/p>\n
Iran has barred women from attending football games since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.<\/p>\n
There were calls on social media before the match for women to protest against the ban outside the Azadi stadium today.<\/p>\n
Women’s rights activist\u00a0Masih Alinejad on Wednesday called on women to attend Thursday’s match<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The Fifa president will be in the stadium tomorrow (1 March),” she wrote.<\/p>\n “I wish women would gather outside the stadium to ask men not to enter without them.”<\/p>\n Another user said it was a “basic right” for women to enter stadiums with men<\/a>, and said this match was “the best chance to break the 35-year-old taboo”.<\/p>\n Azadi means “freedom” stadium in Persian, and one Twitter user pointed out the hypocrisy of “naming a stadium freedom but banning half the population from entering”.<\/p>\n By Alan Johnston, World Service Middle East regional editor<\/strong><\/p>\n The women caught sneaking into the stadium were trying to attend a particularly significant game, one being watched by the most powerful man in world football, Fifa’s boss.<\/p>\n It seems they wanted to attract Mr Infantino’s attention to the ban on women attending games.<\/p>\n And the sensitivity of the issue was apparent as Mr Infantino stood beside the country’s sports minister during a live TV interview.<\/p>\n A journalist asked this awkward question about when the ban might be lifted. The sound was faded down, and the interview abruptly taken off the air.<\/p>\n Mr Infantino had been speaking to reporters about a two-year dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran.<\/p>\n Since 2016, when Saudi Arabia broke off relations with Iran, Saudi clubs have refused to play there, forcing Iranian teams to play home games in Oman.<\/p>\n “It’s very clear that politics should stay out of football and football should stay out of politics,” Mr Infantino said the news conference.<\/p>\n “There are of course political issues between countries all over the world but this should not have an impact,” he said.<\/p>\n Later on, the head of Fifa met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.<\/p>\n Mr Rouhani asked Fifa to make sure that “people are not deprived of watching competitions in their own stadiums”.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why this game?<\/h2>\n
‘Politics should stay out of football’<\/h2>\n