For the first time in around four decades, Iranian women are allowed to play a league game in the football stadium. The women will be provided with 28,000 tickets and thus 30 percent of Tehran’s Asadi Stadium, said a spokesman for Iran’s sports ministry.
If the result is positive, women will soon be granted access to the stadiums in other cities, according to the spokesman, according to the Isna news agency. The league game is the encounter between Esteghlal Tehran and Mess Kerman on Thursday in the Iranian capital.
Under pressure from the world football association FIFA, a limited number of women have been allowed to attend the Asadi Stadium in Tehran, at least for the World Cup qualifiers. However, league games for women have so far been taboo.
In Islamic Iran, women have been banned from attending soccer games for around 40 years. The country’s arch-conservative clergy believe that women have no place in stadiums with fanatical male fans and their vulgar slogans.