By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has urged the Iranian authorities to end the ban on women attending men’s matches, a policy that has been in force since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Blatter, wrapping up a two-day visit to Tehran, said he had raised the issue with that Iran’s top female government official, Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar.
“I had the opportunity this morning to speak with the lady vice president to ask that in the government they should try to change one of the cultural laws here that women cannot attend football matches,” Blatter told a news conference.
“I repeated this to the (conservative) speaker of parliament (Ali Larijani) and he said he will take it up.” Restrictions on women attending football matches were imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“I did not intervene to change the law but, as the president of FIFA and defender of football in Islamic countries, I had to present this plea to the political authorities.” Iran argues somewhat spuriously that the ban is necessary to protect female fans from listening to any foul language from the stands yet it was even extended to live public screenings of last year’s European championships in Poland and Ukraine.
Blatter, in Tehran to attend the International Football and Science conference, added: “You have developed so much women’s football here, that it should say that women also can go to the stadium.”
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