The meaning and significance of sport can be lost in our manic day-to-day lives. At school, we are fortunate to be offered a plethora of opportunities to participate in a large variety of sports. Wherever we turn, there are many role models to whom we can look up to; Olympians, sport stars, even some of our friends. Sometimes, even the daily news reports may seem to be saturated with sporting success. This makes it easy to forget that today many women are still actively prevented from participating in, or spectating, certain sporting events.
After the Islamic revolution, political and legislative changes were introduced in Iran. For example, since 1981, women have been prohibited to attend men’s football matches. Since then, many women have protested, as well as tried to enter football stadiums dressed as men, which generally resulted in their arrests and subsequent prison sentences.
Sahar Khodayari was a young Iranian football fan, a graduate with degrees in English and Computer Science, who paid a very high price for her love of sport. Nicknamed the ‘Blue Girl’, blue being the colour of the football team she supported, on the 2nd September 2019, set herself alight, in protest against the current rules of Iran. She died a week later in hospital.
Sahar Khodayari was arrested six months earlier in March, while attempting to enter a Football Stadium to watch a football match of the Asian Champions League. She was dressed as a man, but got caught by a security guard and arrested for “violating the prohibition”. For six months she awaited her trial, but on the day of 2nd September, the judge was not available to appear at court, therefore no verdict was passed. However, Sahar heard from other sources that she should expect to receive a six to twelve months prison sentence. She then took the decision to self-immolate. After leaving the court house, she poured petrol on herself and set herself on fire.
These events have sparked a series of debates and pressure has been placed on Iran to lift the controversial ban. Many Iranians took part in online campaigns, urging influential sporting organisations to ban Iran from participating in international competitions. Eventually, on the 10th of October 2019, Iranian women were permitted to attend the World Cup qualifier match against Cambodia. The match took place at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran with a turnout of 3,500 women.
Ostensibly, this seems like a success; the media reported the event with headlines such as ‘Women attend first match in decades’ and ‘Thousands of Iranian women watch football match for first time’. However, women who attended the match were still segregated from men within the stadium, sitting in a separate area on allocated seats. Neverthless, it is also worth mentioning, that, it had only been just over a year ago, that in June 2018 similar headlines appeared stating ‘World Cup 2018: Women finally allowed in Iranian football stadium’. On that occasion, women were permitted to be present in the Azadi Stadium while the football match, physically taking place in Russia, was shown live on big screens in the stadium. However, the privilege of being able to spectate the sport ceased as soon as the World Cup came to an end. When FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) applies pressure on Iran, they appear to comply and permit some women to watch a high profile football match live in a stadium. These images circulate on the internet, then journalists report on the momentous changes and what these mean for the women of Iran. Unfortunately, however, the rules revert back as soon as media attention drifts away and focuses on other news elsewhere in the world.
Although this doesn’t detract from the success of 3,500 women being allowed to watch the World Cup qualifying game on the 10th October, it is important to ensure that Sahar Khodayari is not forgotten, because her fight has not been won yet.
Meanwhile, instead of viewing sport as an inconvenience, trying to avoid participation or flicking over sport news and sports channels, we should perhaps pause and remember those who lost their lives due to their love of sport. We don’t all have to love it, but we should all appreciate that we have the choice and we are encouraged to embrace it. Knowing that women are still punished for and prevented from participating in sport, makes me feel sad and humbled.
written by Izabella – swimming rep
Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-49646879
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-50002658