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The Globe and
Mail
JOHN DOYLE
Columnists
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
 FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Today, I'll be at the Portugal-Iran game in Group D of this
thrilling World Cup. Group D has two first-string teams, Portugal and Mexico,
and the underdogs are Iran
and Angola.
Portugal is the glamour
team, although it struggled to beat Angola last weekend. But it's Iran
I'm thinking of today.
Here's the thing — I don't think Iran should be at this World Cup.
The Fédération Internationale
de Football Association should have barred the country from participating.
It's not about the crackpot opinions and addled behaviour
of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
FIFA can't do much about the man being an ill-informed wingnut
on the subject of the Holocaust.
And it's not a matter of Iran's
nuclear program. That's a matter for governments to sort out. And, no, I
don't think Iran
should have been barred from this World Cup because Ahmadinejad
might turn up here and be celebrated by German neo-Nazis. The Germans can
sort out the neo-Nazi problem here, and usually do.
It's about soccer. It's about women. Women are barred from attending soccer
games in Iran.
Any country that promulgates a system of sex apartheid in soccer should not
be allowed to be here. It's that simple.
From what I've read, Iranian women are barred from attending soccer games
because they're not allowed to see unfamiliar, non-family men with bare legs
and arms or to be exposed to the possible foul language of the crowd.
Whatever. In Iran,
women work in many areas of business and government. They work with men in
offices and other places. There are women in Iran who are customs and immigration
officers, police officers and taxi drivers. They run businesses. But if the
national team of Iran
is playing in its own country, women cannot attend.
Also, in Iran,
apparently, women can play soccer, but must do so covered. Men cannot watch
women playing soccer. No male coach is allowed to advise and train a women's
team. If a male coach is needed, he provides information by mobile phone or
some other ludicrous system.
Excuse me, but soccer is the world's game, not the men's game. The FIFA
women's World Cup is an increasingly popular and important part of what FIFA
does in governing world soccer and expanding the popularity of the sport.
It is simply hypocritical for FIFA to allow the participation of Iran in its
international competitions when women's status in Iranian soccer is that of
outsiders, by law. There are many women working for FIFA. There are hundreds
of female journalists covering this World Cup. There are tens of thousand of
women attending the games.
As I see it, FIFA is insulting every woman involved in this World Cup by
tacitly endorsing Iran's
policy of barring women from attending games. The Iranian authorities would
change their rules darn fast if FIFA said the country would be eliminated
from participation in international tournaments unless it allowed free access
to everyone to attend games.
If Iran's
games were meaningless, the guys imposing the rules would change the rules, sharpish. FIFA barred South African from international
competitions during the apartheid era. It can just as easily take a stand on Iran.
Of course, nobody can prevent women from attending Iran's
games in Germany.
There were women in the crowd for the game against Mexico,
and, yes, some were there cheering for Iran. On a platform at the train
station in Berlin, on the morning of that
game, I saw a family wearing Iran
shirts.
It was mom and dad with a son and daughter. The mom and dad were painting the
faces of both kids in Iran's
colours in preparation for the game. In Iran, they
could forget about attending as a family.
It was that scene that reminded me that women are barred from attending games
in Iran
and underlined the repugnancy of the situation.
By allowing Iran's
participation here, FIFA is endorsing the suppression of women from a sport
that's played, followed and enjoyed by women. It's not a political issue.
It's an issue of common decency.
Last month, an Associated Press story gave the world a poignant glimpse of
the situation in Iran.
It described a group of women protesting against their exclusion outside the
stadium in Tehran
in which the national team was playing a World Cup warm-up game. They stood
outside the fence surrounding the stadium and shouted these questions: “Are
we not Iranians? Are our cheers less important?”
The answers should come from FIFA, and Iran should be ordered to let
women attend games or else face expulsion. This is supposed to be the
beautiful game, not the boys-only game.
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