Sport

HRW – Iranian authorities once again prevented women and girls from entering a sports stadium. Iran’s football team played Lebanon in a FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifying match in the city of Mashhad last week. But authorities prevented dozens of women who had reportedly purchased tickets for from entering the stadium. Additionally, videos circulating on social media suggested that some women outside the stadium were …

Al-Monitor – The incidents of March 29 in the northeastern city of Mashhad  rekindled a dormant debate on the right of Iranian women to attend soccer matches as spectators.  Iran’s national football team, which previously qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, was slated to play Lebanon in its final World Cup qualifier showdown last Tuesday. Nearly 2,000 women purchased tickets to …

Iranwire – Iranian artists, sports stars and relatives of people killed in street protests have signed a joint letter to the Iranian national football team calling on players to boycott the 2022 Qatar World Cup if women are still not being allowed to attend matches in stadiums at home. The missive is the latest public reaction to events in Mashhad …

Iranwire – The 2022 World Cup draw on Friday put Iran’s national football team in what was described as the most politically charged group of the contest. Team Melli will be up against England and the USA, as well as the winner of the European playoffs – which could be Ukraine. Iranian football is already deeply politicized, from club ownership …

RFL/RE – Iran coach Dragan Skocic has played down the political aspects of another World Cup group stage meeting with the United States, saying he and the team would only be focusing on soccer. The two teams will meet on November 29 at the Qatar tournament in Group B which also features England and possibly Ukraine as well. Washington broke …

Iranwire – Iranian government and sports officials have sought to dampen down the furore after female football fans were again blocked from entering a stadium in Mashhad, and pepper-sprayed at the gates, ahead of Iran’s last World Cup qualifying match on Tuesday. In an interview with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi claimed that some of the women affected had …

Iranwire – Tuesday, March 29 might yet be a watershed moment in the history of Iranian football under the Islamic Republic – if the International Football Federation (FIFA) chooses to make it so. News that Iranian women were blocked from attending a World Cup qualifying match in the city of Mashhad, and that security guards attacked them with pepper spray …

(HRW) – Iranian authorities prevented dozens of Iranian women from entering Imam Reza football stadium in the city of Mashhad on March 29, 2022, possibly using excessive force, Human Rights Watch said today. FIFA should use its leverage with Iranian authorities to demand that they urgently overturn Iran’s discriminatory stadium ban on women and ensure accountability for abuses. The authorities prevented women, …

gatestoneinstitute.org – To justify his invasion, Putin has cited irredentist demands coupled with kith-and-kin claims and national security interests. If adopted as acceptable behavior, Putin’s scenario would be applicable to numerous other cases across the globe. The most obvious example is that of China, where the Communist regime can threaten Taiwan on the basis of Putin’s arguments. But the same …

Iranwire – On September 24, 2017, Golnar Vakil Gilani, the then-37-year-old president of Iran’s Polo Federation and the youngest person to hold down such a role in history, was fired after 17 months in the job. Within 24 hours rumors began to circulate that she was being pressured, and the sacking had little to do with sports. Later, Gilani herself told the news …