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 based outside Iran accused the
authorities of using pepper spray at close range to disperse women who then
protested the ban outside the venue.
The United for Navid group of exiled
Iranian athletes and activists, set up after the execution of wrestling
champion Navid Afkari in September 2020, said Iran should be suspended from
international football until it changes its stance.
“We formally request that FIFA immediately
suspend Iran and prohibit its participation in the World Cup 2022 as long as
the Football Federation of Iran continues to violate the Olympic Charter and
FIFA regulations,” it said in a letter to FIFA’s deputy secretary general
Mattias Grafstrom.
In the letter, a copy of which was obtained
by AFP Friday, it said that Iran had pledged to FIFA that it would end its
policy of “gender apartheid” by allowing women to attend matches.
“But not only has Iran broken that promise
by continuing to bar women from entering a stadium but women are beaten, abused
and threatened,” it added.
United for Navid said Iran “continues to
ignore” FIFA’s requests to show “basic adherence” to human rights.
– ‘Long overdue’ -Human Rights Watch
meanwhile urged FIFA to demand that Iran urgently overturn the “discriminatory”
stadium ban on women and ensure accountability for abuses.
“Given the Iranian authorities’ longstanding
violations, FIFA needs to follow its own global guidelines on nondiscrimination
and should consider enforcing penalties for Iran’s noncompliance,” Tara Sepehri
Far, HRW’s senior Iran researcher, said in a statement.
The New York-based NGO said that under
FIFA’s statutes discrimination on the basis of gender is “strictly prohibited
and punishable by suspension or expulsion”.
“It is long overdue for FIFA to demonstrate
that it is serious in enforcing transparent accountability measures,” said
Sepehri Far.
There was considerable criticism from
within Iran over the lockout, including from Iran’s team captain Alireza
Jahanbakhsh, and Mashhad’s governor apologised.
President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday
instructed the interior ministry to look into the incident.
In January, women were allowed to attend an
international for the first time in almost three years, for a World Cup
qualifier against Iraq that also saw the Team Melli win its place for the
finals in Qatar, the draw for which was taking place on Friday.
A FIFA spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday
that it had learned with “concern” of the reports of women being barred after
“historic progress” exemplified by the January 2021 match.
“FIFA expects this to continue, as there
can be no turning back.”
Pressure on Iran to act had increased since
the death in 2019 of female fan Sahar Khodayari — known as the “blue girl”
after the colours of her favourite Tehran team Esteghlal — who set herself on
fire in fear of being jailed after trying to attend a match in disguise.
Navid Afkari, a 27-year-old wrestler who
had won national competitions, was hanged in September 2020 in the southern
city of Shiraz after being convicted of committing murder during protests that
rocked the city two years before.
He had complained of being tortured into
confessing, with methods that included beating and having alcohol squirted up
his nose.
AFP