Notice: Undefined index: banner_ad_width in /home/ayekooto/public_html/wp-content/plugins/quick-adsense-reloaded/includes/render-ad-functions.php on line 359
Notice: Undefined index: image_width in /home/ayekooto/public_html/wp-content/plugins/quick-adsense-reloaded/includes/render-ad-functions.php on line 359
Notice: Undefined index: banner_ad_height in /home/ayekooto/public_html/wp-content/plugins/quick-adsense-reloaded/includes/render-ad-functions.php on line 360
Notice: Undefined index: image_height in /home/ayekooto/public_html/wp-content/plugins/quick-adsense-reloaded/includes/render-ad-functions.php on line 360
FIFA on Friday faced calls to sanction Iran and even throw its team out of the 2022 World Cup finals over the Islamic republic’s renewed failure to allow women to attend an international football match.
Iranian news agencies this week confirmed that 2,000 women who had bought tickets for Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier against Lebanon in the northeastern city of Mashhad could not enter the stadium.
Activists from outside Iran claimed that the authorities used pepper spray at close range to disperse ladies protesting the ban outside the venue.
After the execution of wrestling champion Navid Afkari in September 2020, the United for Navid group of expatriate Iranian athletes and activists claimed Iran should be banned from international football until it alters its policy.
In a letter to FIFA’s deputy secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, it added, “We formally propose that FIFA immediately suspend Iran and restrict its participation in the World Cup 2022 as long as the Football Federation of Iran continues to breach the Olympic Charter and FIFA laws.”
Iran had promised FIFA that it would cease its policy of “gender apartheid” by allowing women to attend matches, according to the letter, which was obtained by AFP on Friday.
“However, Iran has not only failed that commitment by continuing to prohibit women from visiting stadiums, but women are also attacked, abused, and threatened,” it continued.
Iran “continues to reject” FIFA’s requirements to demonstrate “basic adherence” to human rights, according to United for Navid.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has urged FIFA to demand that Iran immediately lift its “discriminatory” stadium ban on women and hold perpetrators accountable.
“Given the Iranian authorities’ lengthy history of violations, FIFA should implement its worldwide nondiscrimination guidelines and consider pursuing penalties for Iran’s noncompliance,” HRW’s senior Iran researcher Tara Sepehri Far said in a statement.
According to FIFA’s laws, gender discrimination is “strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion,” according to the New York-based NGO.
“FIFA has long been overdue to show that it is serious about enforcing transparent accountability mechanisms,” Sepehri Far added.
The lockout drew widespread condemnation from within Iran, especially from Iran’s team captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh, and Mashhad’s governor apologized.
President Ebrahim Raisi ordered the interior ministry to investigate the incident on Wednesday.
For the first time in over three years, women were allowed to play in a World Cup qualifier against Iraq in January, which also saw Team Melli earn a spot in the finals in Qatar, the draw for which was held on Friday.
On Wednesday, a FIFA official told AFP that the news of women being prohibited came as a “worry” after “historic progress” demonstrated by the January 2021 match.
“FIFA anticipates that this will continue, as there is no going back.”
Since the death in 2019 of female fan Sahar Khodayari, known as the “blue girl” after the colors of her favorite Tehran team Esteghlal, who set herself on fire in fear of being arrested after attempting to attend a match in disguise, pressure on Iran has risen.
Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old wrestler who had won national contests, was executed in Shiraz, Iran’s southern metropolis, in September 2020 after being convicted of murder during the city’s two-year-long demonstrations.
He claimed he had been tortured into confessing, including being beaten and having alcohol squirted up his nostrils.
Vincent Paul
Comment here