How did the 2018 World Cup defeat a 40-year-old taboo?
At the same time as Iran’s national football team played in the World Cup 2018, a number of Iranian women and men watched the game live from a large television at a football stadium in Tehran.
For you and most people in the world, this is a normal news story. But this normal thing broke the 40-year limit and a taboo in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The day the doors of the football stadium opened to Iranian women.
The issue of women entering the stadiums, especially for watching soccer, has been very challenging in the last four decades in IRAN. Women’s rights advocates have criticized gender inequality for attending sporting events, and in contrast to government officials and their propaganda organizations, the presence of women in the stadium is contrary to Islamic law and causes moral corruption.
Despite the stiffening of the women’s entry into the football stadium, in recent years, some women have been able to enter the stadium and watch the games from scratch, bearding, mustache and wearing men’s clothing. A number of them have also been arrested in this way.
This issue has always been one of the cultural concerns of Iranian reformist, intellectuals and artists. Some reformists even promise to provide women at the stadiums during election campaigns. An issue that has never been realized in a real football game.
In the field of art, this issue has also been addressed.The Offside movie is a 2006 Iranian film directed by Jafar Panahi, about girls who try to watch a World Cup qualifying match but are forbidden by law because of their gender. The film was shot in Iran but its screening was banned there.
However, the fifth appearance of the Iranian national team in the World Cup and the pressure of public opinion led to opening the doors of the football stadium to Iranian women. The largest sports stadium in Iran called Azadi ( Means freedom)! Stadium.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup was a transnational event, which resulted in the removal of a national constraint. This is an international cultural effect and the consequences of globalization of cultures and a world without borders.
