Iran’s women are celebrating the first legal visit to the stadium for 40 years, as a victory against the conservative clergy. Security forces tried to, public Statements about the so-called “blue girl” to stop.
“At the beginning I could not control myself, tears ran down my face,” writes Nafiseh in your message from Tehran to the DW. The 35-year-old Iranian woman was on Thursday for the first Time in her life in Tehran’s Azadi stadium Azadi means freedom. Nafiseh and almost 4,000 other women were first allowed to buy after 40 years of stadium ban cards for a game of the men’s team and the party’s live witness: the home game of the world Cup qualifiers against Cambodia.
A historic day. Not because of the game, the Iran against completely overwhelmed Cambodians with 14:0 and won. The interested hardly anyone in the football world. Except for the Iranian women who pursued this game. The world looked the other alone to you.
Mention of the “Blue girl’s” forbidden
Finally in the stadium
“It was a bit scary! All the photographers were fixated on us. I felt like an animal in the Zoo,” says Donya after the game, the DW: “I was surprised at how polite the female security forces were to us. You have warned us not only to mention the ‘blue girl’.”
The “blue girl” was Sahar Khodayari, a Fan of the football club Esteghlal Tehran, the players will play in blue jerseys. With a long blue coat disguised as a man, had Khodayari on 12. March tries to get into the stadium. She had been arrested, she had threatened up to six months in jail. Before your process had fired the woman herself and died several days later of their severe burns. Under the Hashtag #blue girl, her fate had triggered a worldwide wave of protest in the social networks.
In a Video from the Azadi stadium on Thursday, which was posted on Twitter to see all of our female security forces trying to arrest a young woman, because she held a poster with the inscription “The blue girl” in the cameras. Other spectators prevented that the woman could be discharged. Several Videos also show women that call: “We miss you among us, blue girl.”
Many women had to stay outside
“I still don’t understand why all the years of the visit to the stadium was banned and why we all, even the most mundane things, so hard to fight for,” wrote Nafiseh after the game.
The stadium ban on women is established in Iran religious. The strictly conservative clergy claimed that the women need to be protected from the sight of half-naked men and a vulgar environment in the stadium. Now Iran has yielded to the pressure from FIFA. The world football body had threatened to Iran due to the discrimination of female Fans of the world Cup 2022 in Qatar, to exclude, if not up to 10. October, Iranian women have free access to stadiums received.
Of the approximately 10,000 spectators in the stadium, almost 4,000 were women
First of all, the Iranian authorities had at the Azadi stadium with more than 78,000 seats and 72 of the stadium blocks only a single special grandstand for the women – a stands for the half of the Iranian society. As the Tickets were sold out within a few minutes, opened a second, third and then fourth Block.
“I’ve seen a lot of women in front of the stadium that wanted to buy a Ticket to get in,” says Donya DW. “You had to stay outside, even though so many seats in the stadium were still empty.”
“We have registered,” said the former French midfielder Youri Djorkaeff in an interview with Iranian women who were able to buy a Ticket. The 51-Year-old was part of an observer Delegation which had been sent by FIFA to the game. “We know all the details and will work together in the coming Play with the Iranian football Association, in order to solve this Problem,” promised the world champion of 1998.
FIFA demands that women be allowed in the future to view in Iranian stadiums are not the only games in the world Cup qualifiers and other international matches. Not only are the women in Iran celebrated the historic visit to the stadium on Thursday as a great success in their decade-long fight against the strict rules of the ultra-conservative clergy, and against their discrimination. After the final whistle, the players ran to the stands to captain Massoud Schodschaei to the women-and expressed their thanks for the support. “Now my biggest wish has come true,” said goalkeeper Alireza Beiravand. “My wife was also in the stadium.”