{"id":862,"date":"2015-11-06T18:52:06","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T18:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=862"},"modified":"2015-11-06T18:52:06","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T18:52:06","slug":"iran-end-ban-on-women-at-volleyball-matches-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"Iran: End Ban on Women at Volleyball Matches"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Volleyball Federation\u2019s Tolerance of Exclusion Brings \u2018Shame to the Game\u2019<\/strong>
\n(New York) \u2013\u00a0Iran should stop preventing women and girls from attending volleyball matches and take further steps to promote gender equality, Human Rights Watch said in opening a digital advocacy campaign to promote respect for women\u2019s rights in the country.
\nThe campaign coincides with the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Men\u2019s Club World Championship in Brazil, from\u00a0October 27 to November 1, 2015, and the FIVB\u2019s\u00a0decision to award Iran hosting rights for the February 2016 FIVB beach volleyball tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2012, the Iranian government has banned women and girls from volleyball tournaments \u2013 and has even arrested women for trying to enter stadiums,\u201d said\u00a0Minky Worden, director of global initiatives. \u201cIt is time for the International Volleyball Federation to act to end this blatant discrimination, which violates its own rules, and brings shame to the game.\u201d
\nVolleyball is a widely popular sport in Iran and a great source of national pride. Among the longstanding, serious rights abuses and discrimination women face in Iran, they are\u00a0barred from entering sport stadiums, including to watch men\u2019s volleyball matches.
\nIranian authorities\u2019 restrictions on women attending sporting events is part and parcel of a larger pattern of discrimination and human rights violations in the country on the basis of gender. As Human Rights Watch has documented, women in Iran confront myriad abuses, including discrimination in personal status laws such as marriage, divorce, and child custody; the unlawful detention of human rights defenders who peacefully advocate women\u2019s rights; and even restrictions on travel. The authorities recently prohibited Niloufar Ardalan, an Iranian women\u2019s national soccer team captain, from participating in the Women\u2019s Futsal Championship in Malaysia after her husband refused to give his permission for her to travel.
\nThe campaign, #Watch4Women, seeks a commitment from the FIVB to exclude Iran from hosting volleyball tournaments until the country ends its discriminatory ban on female spectators. The FIVB has failed to penalize Iran or publicly speak out against the ban, which violates the \u201cFourth Fundamental Principle\u201d \u2013 on\u00a0nondiscrimination \u2013 of the FIVB\u2019s own constitution.
\nCommenting on the #Watch4Women campaign, two-time volleyball Olympian Lina Taylor said, \u201cThe FIVB was one of the first sports federations to insist on equal pay for both men and women. The FIVB can and should make a difference for women and girls in Iran, too.\u201d
\nThe campaign will include regular updates and actions on the Human Rights Watch Facebook and Twitter feeds.
\nIran\u2019s discriminatory practices were on full display in June, when it hosted international volleyball matches against Russia and the United States at the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran as part of the FIVB\u2019s 2015 World League. Officials systematically prevented Iranian women from entering the 12,000-seat stadium to watch the men\u2019s matches.
\nThis male-only policy for spectators at men\u2019s volleyball matches dates to 2012, when the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry expanded the existing ban on Iranian women at men\u2019s soccer matches to cover volleyball. Iranian officials claim that mixed attendance at sports events is \u201cun-Islamic,\u201d threatens public order, and exposes women to crude behavior by male fans.
\n\u201cWith the #Watch4Women campaign, we seek to spotlight Iran\u2019s ugly discrimination against women and girls,\u201d Worden said. \u201cEnding the ban preventing female spectators from attending volleyball matches would be a symbolically important step toward greater gender equality in Iran and should be a top priority for the FIVB.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volleyball Federation\u2019s Tolerance of Exclusion Brings \u2018Shame to the Game\u2019 (New York) \u2013\u00a0Iran should stop preventing women and girls from attending volleyball matches and take further steps to promote gender<\/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":[221,242],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-human-rights-watch","tag-women-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","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=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions\/863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iransos.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}