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About 3,500 women attend football match in Iran

This has become the first game in nearly 40 years that women could attend freely

© EPA-EFE/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. About 3,500 women have attended the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification match between Iran and Cambodia that took place on Thursday in Tehran, the AFP agency reported.

This has become the first game in nearly 40 years that women could attend freely.

The game ended with a crushing victory of the Iranian team with the score of 14:0. So far, Iran is leading in Group C of World Cup qualifications with six points scored in two rounds, followed by Bahrain with four points.

Earlier on Wednesday, Amnesty International blasted Iran’s limited allocation of football tickets for women "a cynical publicity stunt", demanding that the Iranian government lift all restrictions on women’s attendance of football games. The organization stressed that the number of women present at the match was very low compared to the stadium’s capacity of 78,000 people, calling on FIFA to ensure that all women are permitted to attend all matches. "Anything short of a full reversal of the ban on women accessing all football stadiums is an insult to Sahar Khodayai’s memory and an affront to the rights of all the women of Iran who have been courageously campaigning for the ban to be lifted," the statement published by Amnesty International stressed.

Sahar Khodayari set herself on fire in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran in September in protest for women facing prison sentences after attending football matches. She later died in hospital.

Women in Iran were banned from attending male sports events after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In October of last year, 100 women were allowed to attend a friendly game between Iran and Bolivia, and in November, around 500 female fans went to the Asian Champions League final between FC Persepolis (Iran) and FC Kashima Antlers (Japan).

In June 2019, AP reported that FIFA President Gianni Infantino had demanded that Iranian Football Federation and the Iranian government provide guarantees that women will be allowed to attend 2022 FIFA World Cup games in Qatar.

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