SBS The World Game
By Scott McIntyre
One Iranian woman traveled to Australia not only to support her nation in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup but to raise awareness for a campaign much closer to her heart, the right to watch live matches in her home country.
The tug of emotion and the sharp flash of memory are almost always greater keepsakes than any kind of physical memento.
While it's much easier to measure the 'legacy' of the recent Asian Cup in material terms - through the likes of covered benches - by far the most pressing benefaction is in the joy of having lived something, having experienced something.
For many of those who were here in January, it's the memory of a pass, a goal or a shared moment of exhilaration at a result but for others it was simply the act of being there in the first place.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of the large number of Iranian women who flocked to venues in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra to support Team Melli.
The same women who, had the tournament been held in their homeland, would have had to watch on television due to a longstanding ban on female fans at football stadia in Iran.
One of those was Maryam, who travelled from abroad to attend the Asian Cup in support of Iran, and to expose a campaign she's running called 'My Fundamental Right.'
I met Maryam in Sydney at the conclusion of the Asian Cup and to hear her story is to immediately realise the deep injustice of a government policy aimed at ensuring 'security.'
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