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Iran shows contempt for women, life and freedom in sport

Et is just five months ago that around 500 Iranian women were allowed to watch a league game of their favorite club FC Esteghlal in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium. That wasn’t a lifting of the stadium ban for women by the Islamic Republic, but in Tehran’s main stadium, it was said, at least some women should always be allowed to watch when Esteghlal and Persepolis, the country’s most important clubs, played there.

Less than four weeks later, Dschina Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the moral guardians, and the whole world learned that Azadi means freedom: the civil rights and freedom movement protested under the slogan Zan, Zendegi, Azadi – woman, life, freedom. The Islamic Republic of Iran reacted predictably and increasingly brutally in the streets and just as predictably in the stadium: the spectators had to stay outside, the players were forced to continue playing in front of empty sets.

Anyone showing sympathy for the protest will be sanctioned, Reza Shekari was hit last matchday. The midfielder for club Gol Gohar from the southern Iranian city of Sirjan scored against Tractor Tabriz but did not celebrate and later explained in an interview that the players only play because they are forced to play. The situation in Iran is not good, people are mourning. Shekari was suspended immediately and indefinitely, because anyone who says the obvious disrupts the regime’s portrayal that everything is largely fine in the country.

The stadium ban applies again

To prove that, those in power are now letting spectators back into the stadiums. FC Esteghlal plays Malavan from Bandar Anzali in front of spectators on Thursday. Not in front of spectators. As the league boss announced on Monday, the stadium ban for women now applies again to the Azadi Stadium – there is no infrastructure for spectators. No freedom for women, especially not in the stadium – and how little the lives of the citizens of the Islamic Republic are worth is shown not only in view of the executions and torture of athletes.

On Monday, the human rights organization Kurdistan Human Rights Network reported on the fate of archer Kosar Khoshnoush Kia. In November 2021, she finished second at the Asian Championships in team competition with two other compound shooters from the Islamic Republic of Iran. On December 9, 2022, militias from the Islamic Republic of Iran shot at demonstrators in the city of Kermanshah. Kosar Khoshnoush Kia was hit. Despite several operations, the doctors could not save her left eye. Because of reports like this, not only the Iranian football professionals know what they are being forced to do: they have to play tragedies.

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