Blatter calls on Iran to allow women into stadiums

[KC McElroy]

http://www.firstpost.com/sports/sepp...s-2139959.html

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has asked Iran to end its ban on women watching football matches, describing the situation as intolerable.

"When I travelled to Iran in November 2013, I was not only confronted with huge popular enthusiasm from football but also a law forbidding women from attending football matches," he wrote in FIFA's weekly magazine.
AFP

AFP

"I raised the topic at my meeting with the President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, and came away with the impression that this intolerable situation could change over the medium term.

"However, nothing has happened. A collective "stadium ban" still applies to women in Iran, despite the existence of a thriving women's football organisation.

"This cannot continue. Hence, my appeal to the Iranian authorities; open the nation's football stadiums to women."

During the Asian Cup in Australia this year, Iran's support included thousands of women who were free to show up in Australia, without any dress restrictions.

Their female supporters also become a big hit with local media, prompting the Iranian authorities to remind the players to be wary of posing for photographs that may be posted on social media.

Iran is bidding against the United Arab Emirates to host the 2019 Asian Cup and the ban on women is expected to damage their chances of being awarded the tournament.

Blatter also criticised the continental confederations for failing to elect any women onto the FIFA's executive committee.

The committee includes three women, one with voting rights and two co-opted, but they are elected directly by the FIFA Congress following a change to the statutes in 2011.

"This was hard work because the members of FIFA's executive committee are elected by the national associations in their (continental) Congresses and...there was never, never a proposal for a woman to be finally in FIFA," Blatter told an event at FIFA headquarters.

"We had to take the decision, and I did it in 2011 at the end of the Congress, I said we must have at least one woman on the executive committee," he said.

"In all the confederations, there is no woman...this macho sport, and that's a pity, we should change in the future."

[PersianLegion]

Naravd mikh ahanin dar sang! This mullahdom doesn't let women to dress as they like how come do you expect it to let them come to the stadiums? Not gonna happen baba joon!

[TheBoss]

PersianLegion makes a good point, but it's very good that FIFA has spoken on this issue and now IFF has to respond. FIFA should put a lot of pressure on the mullahs and they will give in.

[_Navid_]

Good job for once.

[MR.S]

he will forget this as soon as he gets reelected

[eerooni]

Mullahs will only change if great force is applied to them. SO far no force, therefore ban will sadly continue!

[Bi-honar]

I guess Blatter has finally done something you can call NICE!

Three important things to think about:

1 - This is obviously coming out within weeks of our women activist submitting that letter to Blatter, so kudos to them for getting the ball rolling. I don't know why a lot of these things haven't been done sooner, but I think it shows people are sensing some tolerance and urgency for change under Rohani. Change for the better is obviously a great thing for all Iranians.

2 - The timing of this (our activists submitting that letter and Blatter finally speaking about his trip a year and half later is VERY interesting. The participation of Iranian women in both the WC and Asian Cup was absolutely unprecedented and as the article points out, it drew a lot of world and western attention to Iranian women (just as there's a lot of spotlight in Iran in general for the nuclear negotiations and rapprochement with the west). What's even more interesting is that the phenomenon even made head ways in Iran (for example with Adel's comment about censorship on live TV, etc.). What was very different this time was that the authorities weren't really freakin' out about it, blocking TM completely from spending time with the fans, etc. like they did previously.

3 - Again, as related to the timing coinciding with the pending Asian Cup hosting announcement, there may very well be some push behind closed doors in Iran to make this happen from the IFF all the way to the centers of power. I know none of us had any hope of Iran actually getting the Asian Cup, but with a surprise announcement, it may very well push the decision our way - not to mention it will buy the regime some time to deal with this issue.

[AminGP]

They should give Iran and other countries who ban women from stadiums a serious warning that they will be disqualified from participating in any international competition if they don't allow women into their stadiums. They have to put pressure on them.

[persepolisfan]

I hope this comes true, but the mullahs give no fucks

[Abtin]

Won't happen.
Islam/cancer > humanity ..(in Iran)

[shayan_esteghlali]

blatter is just trying to get re-elected... by saying this many federations will see him as a president who fights for women rights etc.
he also said that women should have a stronger role in football and that women football should be taken more seriously, its all politics

[shahname]

[Bi-honar]

he also said that women should have a stronger role in football and that women football should be taken more seriously, its all politics

There's a lot of things we can fault Blatter for but women's football is definitely not one of them.

The guy transformed women's WC from a fringe sporting event into a a HUGE tournament. In 1995 (3 years before he became the president of FIFA) he said "the future of football is feminine", a comment he was totally ridiculed for in the media.

Here we are, exactly 20 years later with the 2015 women's WC having 24 teams for the very 1st time with 134 nations (also a record) having participated in the qualification process. As far as know, the sales of broadcasting rights has also set a record.

[webmaster]

If men and women are supposed to have fun in Iran then what is the point of an Islamic Republic?

so if it is against the IR principals, it will never happen.

[KC McElroy]

روز از نو، روزی از نو

http://tenplay.com.au/news/2015/03/0...dium-nod--iran

Foreign women may be allowed to attend football matches in Iran, a top official said Saturday, but a ban on female nationals watching live games seems set to remain.

The comments came a day after FIFA chief Sepp Blatter called the exclusion of women from stadiums an "intolerable situation" that he raised when he met Iran's President Hassan Rouhani in 2013.

Blatter, in FIFA's weekly magazine, appealed to Iranian authorities to "open the nation's football stadiums to women".

"A collective stadium ban still applies to women in Iran, despite the existence of a thriving women's football organisation. This cannot continue," he wrote.

Access to football stadiums has been forbidden for women since the Islamic revolution in 1979, on the official basis that the ruling protects them from obscene behavior among male fans.

The ban, however, has been deemed a major obstacle to Iran's ambitions of hosting the 2019 Asian Nations Cup.

Without giving a timeframe, Ali Kafashian, president of Iran's Football Federation, told Isna news agency that the Asian Football Confederation has "requested certain facilities that we have agreed to supply".

"We have problems regarding the presence of women in stadiums, but in relation to foreigners, we are looking at how to solve the problems," he said.

Such a step would appear to follow Iran's Volleyball Federation, which in January said it would break with custom and allow foreign women to attend male matches when it hosts a major tournament this summer.

That decision came months after the sport's governing body, the FIVB, said it would not allow the Islamic republic to host international events while its gender policies remained in place.