MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Iran's Supreme National Security Council has made a decision to let women to enter stadiums to see football matches, the ISNA news agency reported on Friday.
"Women will be able to visit stadiums. The Supreme National Security Council has made such a decision. A working group responsible for the implementation of the project has been appointed. The Interior Ministry, Sports and Youth Policy Ministry, the football federation and two institutions of the Ministry of Information are in the process of developing a plan for implementing the reform. The Gol Gohar stadium in Sirjan, Naqsh-e Jahan and Foolad Shahr stadiums in Isfahan and Ghadir stadium in Ahvaz will be open to female fans. The Azadi stadium in Tehran should be prepared," the agency quoted Mehdi Taj, head of the Iranian Football Federation, as saying.
Women in Iran have been banned from attending men's sporting events since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In recent years, women have been allowed to watch soccer matches in the country on a quota basis. In 2018, International Football Federation President Gianni Infantino demanded that the Iranian Football Federation and government officials provide guarantees that women would be allowed to attend national team matches.
After Infantino's statement, women in Iran received quotas to attend some matches. In 2019, approximately 3,500 women attended the 2022 World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Cambodia, the first time in nearly 40 years where women were represented en masse.