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January 28, 2025

When cheering for the national team is prohibited / Jila Bani Yaghoub

Peace Line – That night, some of my friends said: Tomorrow the volleyball competition will start at Azadi Stadium, we all remembered that the World Volleyball Federation had promised the Islamic Republic of Iran to allow women to attend the stadium to watch the World Volleyball competitions.

How great, how much we wanted to see the competitions up close, and now that there is no legal barrier for women to enter the stadium. It didn’t even exist until just two years ago. We couldn’t understand why suddenly they decided to ban women from entering the venue of volleyball competitions, football was banned but not volleyball. Officials used to say that the atmosphere in the volleyball stadium was not suitable for women like it was for football. I don’t know what made them change their minds and also ban women from watching volleyball. But now there was no need to worry, anyway the federation had accepted women’s presence again and we could cheer on our national volleyball team against Brazil up close.Zilla_4[1]

That night, we planned to arrive half an hour before the start of the competition. Our group wasn’t very big… There were six or seven of us who wanted to watch the volleyball match at the 12,000-seat Azadi Stadium.

Tomorrow arrived and we, six of us, made our way to the gates of the grand Azadi Stadium. Along the way, we bought a few Iranian flags from the same vendors who sell flags, wristbands, and hats on the street leading to the stadium. We wanted to wave the flags and cheer on the Iranian team, was this too much? Was it illegal? We saw no reason for it to be illegal to support our country’s team. We stood calmly and happily in front of the stadium gates, holding the Iranian flag and taking a few pictures.

Before we arrived, there were also young girls there. Some of the girls were wearing white headscarves, some with a chador, and some with a mantoo. The girls said, “We want to be spectators of the volleyball game today.” We said, “Us too.” They said, “It would be great if, as promised by the federation, they let us all into the hall today.”

But the officials of the stadium did not allow women to enter and we were left behind closed doors. The young girls in white headscarves were saying, “What happened to the promise of the Volleyball Federation?” They had said that there was no problem with this.

The Islamic Republic once again violated its commitments regarding women’s rights. That day, a few women, apparently wives of officials or relatives of ambassadors and Brazilian volleyball players, were able to enter the stadium. When a few women were allowed in, they were faced with the question of why they were allowed in while we were not. The officials responded, “They have passports, Brazilian passports.” One of our friends (Mira) said, “We also have passports, Iranian passports. Can we enter?”… There was no response.

We didn’t want much. We just wanted to support the Iranian volleyball team against foreign competitors. With the tricolor flag of Iran, did we want too much? …But they didn’t allow us and easily opposed our minimum and legal demands.

Zahra Bani-Yaghoub

Journalist

Zahra Baniyaghoub
December 25, 2014

"Flower bud" Gender equality Memory Peace Agreement Number 43 Peace Agreement of Azar Month Peace Line Magazine Issue 43 Volleyball Zahila Bani Ya'qub