Human Rights Watch claimed today that Iranian officials blocked hundreds of Iranian women from accessing the Imam Reza football stadium in Mashhad on March 29, 2022, potentially using excessive force.
The authorities barred women from accessing the sports stadium in Mashhad, Khorasan province, to attend a FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualification match between Iran and Lebanon. Social media videos appear to show women gathered in front of the stadium, reporting that officials used pepper spray to disperse them.
The Iranian Football Federation published a statement on March 30 stating that “due to a lack of preparation,” they were unable to accommodate women at the event. The statement further claimed that just nine ladies had purchased tickets and, without providing evidence, claimed that “fake” tickets were disseminated among spectators.
Iranian authorities have prohibited women from attending football and other stadium-based sports for the previous 40 years. While this prohibition is not enshrined in law or regulation, it has been consistently enforced by authorities for decades. The prohibition has resulted in arrests, beatings, incarceration, and mistreatment of women.
Discrimination on the basis of gender – including exclusion or interference with access for women and girls to stadiums – is “strictly banned and punished by suspension or expulsion” under FIFA’s Statutes (Article 3, Human Rights, and Article 4, Non-Discrimination).
DIDE believes that the Iranian authorities have frequently proved their willingness to go to considerable lengths to enforce their discriminatory and inhumane prohibition on women attending football games. FIFA should utilize its leverage with Iranian authorities to press for an end to Iran’s discriminatory stadium ban for women and responsibility for violations.
