Blatter urges Iran to allow women in stadiums

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has urged Iran to end the ban on women watching football in stadiums, describing the situation as “intolerable”.

In comments published on Friday in FIFA’s weekly magazine ahead of International Women’s Day, Blatter said that despite his efforts to convince Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to let women attend matches when he met him in 2013, “nothing has happened”.

“I raised the topic at my meeting with President of Iran Hassan Rouhani, and came away with the impression that this intolerable situation could change over the medium term,” Blatter wrote in the letter titled “An appeal to Iran.”

“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.”

Iran is one of the few countries that block women from attending matches but has permitted female fans at some other sports venues in the past.

In 2006, then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said women could attend matches in a special section of stadiums, but the decision was overruled by higher authorities. A year later, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi showed girls who dressed as men to sneak into football matches in Tehran.

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.

At the Asian Cup earlier this year in Australia, Iranian players were reportedly threatened with punishment back home if they were to take selfies with female fans attending their games after pictures emerged on social media. Iranian female fans also showed up in numbers at stadiums during the tournament.