Iranian women gatecrash team's World Cup party

MICHAEL THEODOULOU

Scotman.com


HUNDREDS of thousands of Iranian football fans flouted the Islamic state's moral codes as they took to the streets after qualifying for the World Cup.

The national side's 1-0 win over minnows Bahrain booked Iran's place at the 2006 finals in Germany, and set off a country-wide party.

Some women breached the strictures of Islamic rule by taking off their mandatory headscarves, waving them in the air and dancing with young men.

Once more, football served as a vehicle for reform in the Islamic republic: more than 20 young female fans forced their way into the stadium before the game, defying a 26-year ban on their presence in the stands.

"Freedom is my right, Iran is my country," they chanted.
One woman, Mahboubeh Abbas-Gholizadeh, missed the game after breaking her leg when guards tried to push the women out by closing a gate at Tehran's Freedom Stadium.

But it was worth it, she said: "A leg gets broken, but maybe it will lead to a change in the law. Or an issue regarding women's rights might be brought to attention."

Once her friends had pushed their way through, they were given seats on the orders of Mohammad Khatami, the moderate president, who watched the game from the VIP section.

The gate-crashers were not the only women at the game, attended by 80,000 male fans.

Presidential candidate Mohsen Mehralizadeh, the head of Iran's Sports Organisation, had agreed for a few score women to be present at the game in segregated rows.

With elections looming next Friday, supporters of the eight presidential candidates were present to canvass support.

But football enthusiasm has far outweighed any excitement about the lacklustre presidential race. "Who cares about the elections?" laughed one young woman draped in the red, white and green Iranian flag. "We're going to the World Cup!"

There was a heavy police presence in Tehran. Iran's old guard remains deeply suspicious of large gatherings and the emotions unleashed by football.

The late Ayatollah Khomeini, who fathered the 1979 Islamic Revolution, described the game, which in recent years has been a catalyst for Iran's restless youth to express political and social discontent, as an "addictive product of the West". Wednesday night's festivities were generally trouble-free and the security forces remained light-hearted.

But some sporadic clashes were reported in the east of the capital between a hardline volunteer militia and revellers.

Iranian women, who share their countrymen's obsession with football, hope that the taboo banning them from male sporting events will be lifted soon.

Also in favour is Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the elderly frontrunner in the election race, who like his fellow candidates is trying to appeal to the women's and youth vote in a country where people can vote at 15 and two-thirds of the population are aged under 30.

"In the current environment there is no use imposing tastes, being strict and going backwards," he said.

"Whoever becomes the president cannot work without considering the demands and conditions of the society."

The largely young, male crowds at Iranian stadiums are well-known for the vulgarity of their chants and hardliners argue the women should be spared this.

But Faezeh Hashemi argued: "They should look at it another way - women will have a civilising effect on the male fans."