Open Stadiums Iranian Women's Rights Activists
At the Iran versus Cambodia game, we saw great happiness inside the stadium with women posting their tickets on social media!
Open Stadiums is an Iranian-based movement seeking to end gender inequality for Iranian women as well as to lift the ban on women attending football matches in Iran.
Up until 2019, Iranian women had been barred, since 1981, from attending matches in their own home nation and despite internal and international pressure, the ban persisted.
Decades of activism meant change was inevitable and the tragic passing of Sahar Khodayari also known as "Blue Girl", made global pressure relentless.
There has been a lot progress in the past year or so with pressure finally prevailing with 3,000 women being allowed to attend the World Cup qualifier between Iran and Cambodia at Tehran's Azadi Stadium on October 10th 2019.
In an exclusive follow up interview to our last talk, Open Stadiums shared their thoughts on the movement's recent success and how and why the Iranian authorities relented and finally allowed women to attend a match at the Azadi Stadium after nearly four decades.
Soccerphile: Women were finally allowed to enter Tehran's Azadi Stadium to see Iran take on Cambodia; is this a major victory for women's rights in Iran? What was the reaction in Iran and among Iranians overseas?
Open Stadiums: "Maybe it seems very easy but actually when you see a bit of "victory" then it is time to talk about who is the 'winner' and who did this!
There are debates inside Iran, because I think many of us didn't work publicly, was that it was mostly FIFA's pressure that caused this opening because there's this sense among people that nothing is going to happen from the inside and only a foreign body can change this regime.
Also, some didn't want to give a bit of credit to the Iranian women's rights movement. The thing most people didn't know was years of pressure from us (Open Stadiums) on FIFA to say something.
Those who were actively participating to remove this ban were really happy because we saw great happiness inside the stadium with women posting their tickets on social media.
Although abroad and among the sports media, we saw a great appreciation toward Iranian women activists who worked to remove the ban; it was breaking news and it seems everywhere in the media there was a mention of Iranian women going to stadium for the Cambodia game."
Soccerphile: Was the sad passing of "Blue Girl", Sahar Khodayari, the spur for the change in attitude towards women attending games in Iran?
Open Stadiums: "It was shocking and again, big breaking news all over the world. Also there was solidarity from lots of fans and teams around the world but some decisions were made near end of the July and her death didn't really cause this opening up of the stadiums; the important part was the psychological effects of Sahar's death on Iranian female fans and stadium activists as they were really sad and anxious days specially for me and I had a fear that other female fans would feel that death is the only way to achieve this goal (of opening stadium doors to women)."
Soccerphile: There was a lot of pressure from FIFA and overseas governments and organizations after the passing of "Blue Girl", was there also a lot of internal pressure from inside Iran?
Open Stadiums:"People were really sad but you know, because of serious security issues, we can't demonstrate or protest against human rights issues on the streets as the regime would crackdown on people immediately, so people showed their protests and sadness mainly on social media; all of my social media time lines were full of people's grief.
Inside the stadium, we saw that Esteghlal's captain gave black T-shirts to the players to wear with the phrase "blue girl" in Persian and because of that, the authorities questioned him. Officials and state media did their best to insult her family and fans who were shocked at this attitude; from saying she was bipolar or wasn't a "good" girl."
Soccerphile: The future seems brighter in terms of equality in Iranian sports for female fans, do you expect it to improve further in the future?
Open Stadiums: "Who knows when you live in the Middle East, what is going to happen in the future! The only thing I know is to do my job as a women's rights activist on a daily basis without thinking about tomorrow."
Soccerphile: Iran have misfired in their World Cup group; we will see Iran at the World Cup in Qatar?
Open Stadiums: "This makes my heart race! Our team for a couple of years was really good but this time, they lost to Bahrain and Iraq. I can't forgot my heartache after the Iraq match as suddenly I felt what would happen if we don't qualify!
Qatar is the closest venue to our country that a World Cup will be held and its important for us to be there. You know for our country, these kind of sports victories are like a window to 'breathe' from all the inside and outside oppressions.
For once, we can show ordinary Iranian people to the world instead of just politicians. Also, all these sport events are great opportunities for the 'Open Stadiums' campaign to talk, raise awareness and increase pressure for women's rights."
Thank You!
Previous Interview with Open Stadiums
For more on Open stadiums, you can follow their Twitter account here: twitter.com/openstadiums