Kamangir (Archer)

Women in Stadiums? Not, Yet

Kamangir | April 25, 2006 | Category Iran

Top clerics are concerned that Ahmadinejad’s order to let the women watch football in the stadiums is against Islam. Fazel Lankarani (آیت الله فاضل لنکرانی) issued a Fatwa that “women’s presence in public sports places includes their intercourse with men”. He added “even devoting special locations of the stadiums to women will not solve this problem”. He proposed to “build separate locations for women’s sports” (see) (see).
The political wing of the Islamic Republic seems to be not very welcoming, too (see). A member of parliament from the fraction of sports says “President’s order was not a new bill, the limitations were devised for moral reasons”. He worries that “there is strong opposition to this proposal and it may not actually be carried out”. Some other members of parliament advocate the decision but still say “gradual steps are necessary”. Another member of parliament says “when there are spectators that destroy public assets after the game who is going to guard women”. Fateme Rahbar, a female member of parliament, says “women’s presence in stadiums should comply with Islamic morality” she concludes “giving women their rights should not obstruct other people’s and the society’s rights”. She is worried that the decision may result in disrupting “society’s modesty”. I conclude that women should be kept out of the stadiums because of other people’s rights, probably men’s. So, women can not watch a game live because there is a chance that a man may loose his modesty. The fascinating part of it is that a women mentions this theory.

Images: Left, Grand Aiatollah Fazel Lankarani, Right, Fateme Rahbar, Top, Women protesting in front of Azadi Stadium (courtesy of parastood (see)).

p.s. Azadeh has a very good proposal. She says “why not having two stadiums and then playing each game in both of them”. In this way, each game will played twice, once for men then for women. Then, the results are averaged, which results in less variation.