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November 27, 2018 \u2013 Heeding calls by women\u2019s rights activists inside and outside Iran, governing football body FIFA has been urged in a new report by its advisory board to give the Islamic Republic a deadline to lift its ban on women in football stadiums.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Open Stadiums campaign, which describes itself as a \u201cmovement of Iranian women seeking to end discrimination and let women enter stadiums,\u201d welcomed the board\u2019s\u00a0recommendations on Iran\u00a0as a \u201cGreat achievement for Iranian female football fans who insisted for their right to enter to stadiums for more than 13 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), which has been advocating against the ban for several years, also welcomed the recommendations while adding that Iranian women remain \u201cwell aware that their peaceful battle for equal rights isn\u2019t over yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the years, Iran has fended off international pressure to lift this discriminatory ban by temporarily relaxing it,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s crucial for FIFA to implement its board\u2019s recommendations and take all necessary steps to ensure that Iran complies with the human rights statutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some Iranian women rights activists who are not affiliated with the Open Stadiums campaign also registered their approval on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cFIFA is supporting Iranian women\u2019s rights by issuing an ultimatum to allow women into stadiums,\u201d\u00a0tweeted\u00a0Azam Jangravi, one of the dozens of women who were arrested in Iran in 2018 for peacefully protesting against the state\u2019s compulsory hijab law by removing their headscarves in public.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s our turn to show our social power,\u201d added Jangravi, who was arrested in February and has since left the country. \u201cLet\u2019s not forget that we are countless and dictators gain strength from our disunity and silence.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FIFA Human Rights Advisory Board\u2019s\u00a0report, published on November 26, 2018, recommends that FIFA be \u201cexplicit about the timeframe in which it expects its Member Association [Iran] to align with FIFA\u2019s human rights expectations and the anticipated sanctions if it does not, including under the FIFA Statutes, Disciplinary Code and Ethics Code.\u201d<\/p>\n
Comprised of eight independent experts from the United Nations, trade unions, civil society and FIFA sponsors, the board also recommends using FIFA\u2019s \u201cexisting leverage\u201d regarding decisions about \u201cupcoming tournaments where the Iranian Football Association is bidding since, by definition, this would pose challenges to FIFA meeting its own human rights responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran is the only country in the world that bans women from sports stadiums. The unofficial policy has been backed by religious conservatives and political hardliners in Iran since 1980, a year after the establishment of the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
But Iran\u2019s ban is a violation of FIFA\u2019s own rules for teams that participate in international football events. Article 4\u00a0of FIFA\u2019s statutes states that discrimination of any kind against a group of people is \u201cstrictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Activists Face Uphill Battle Against Decades-Long Ban<\/strong><\/p>\n Iran relaxed its ban four times in 2018 thus far, twice by allowing a limited number of women to watch televised World Cup matches inside Tehran\u2019s Azadi Stadium in the summer and also by allowing limited numbers of women to watch men\u2019s soccer matches in the stadium in October and November.<\/p>\n The board noted these \u201cpositive developments\u201d while warning that \u201cthese ad hoc decisions are obviously not the same as a formal end to the ban.\u201d<\/p>\n The peaceful struggle against the ban has been inching forward throughout the decades in Iran despite the threat of\u00a0arrest and imprisonment\u00a0with various protest and campaign actions, including women entering Azadi Stadium dressed as men and\u00a0celebrities\u00a0calling on officials to\u00a0lift the ban.<\/p>\n On March 2, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had \u201cpromised\u201d during a meeting in Tehran that women in Iran would \u201csoon\u201d be allowed to enter stadiums. But a day earlier, 35 women were\u00a0arrested\u00a0for trying to enter Tehran\u2019s Azadi Stadium, where Infantino watched a soccer match.<\/p>\n Despite the promise, President Rouhani has not called for the ban to be lifted. Meanwhile conservative and hardline officials have registered their fierce opposition to women being allowed to enjoy football matches in the same stadium as men.<\/p>\n Immediately after a limited number of women were allowed into Azadi Stadium to watch a men\u2019s home game in October 2018, Iran\u2019s Attorney General Jafar Montazeri threatened to \u201cconfront\u201d anyone who allows the \u201ctrend\u201d to continue.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s problematic when women looking at men\u2019s half-naked bodies,\u201d he\u00a0said. \u201cIt undermines the country\u2019s Islamic norms.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe media outlets that support women\u2019s presence in the stadium should give a convincing answer to this problem,\u201d he added. \u201cI advise the officials that if this trend continues we will confront it because we should not be promoting sin and immorality.\u201d<\/p>\n But some Iranians took to social media to express an opposing viewpoint, including Iranian celebrities who are expected to avoid making statements against state policies.<\/p>\n \u201cHoping for the day when half of Azadi (Stadium in Tehran) will be yours,\u201d\u00a0tweeted\u00a0soccer player Hossein Mahini, a member of Iran\u2019s national Team Melli.<\/p>\n \u201cIranian officials have made various ludicrous statements to justify the ban, including the already disproven claim that Iran\u2019s stadiums aren\u2019t safe for women,\u201d said Ghaemi.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever their personal views, these officials should come to terms with the fact that the Iranian people, especially women, are committed to peacefully demanding their rights and aren\u2019t backing down,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n For interviews, contact: Visit our website:\u00a0www.iranhumanrights.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" November 27, 2018 \u2013 Heeding calls by women\u2019s rights activists inside and outside Iran, governing football body FIFA has been urged in a new report by its advisory board to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[439,440,441,242],"class_list":["post-1337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-movement-of-iranian-women","tag-women-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1338,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHadi Ghaemi
\n+1-917-669-5996
\nhadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org<\/p>\n