Football in Iran: Where brave women have resisted before

“There is great anger because of the murder of innocent people. And frustration because we can’t do anything about it,” Leyli told DW. Since the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September, the protests against those in power in Tehran have not stopped. The 22-year-old died in police custody under unclear circumstances after being arrested by the so-called vice police for “inappropriate clothing”. Since then, more than 200 people have been killed in the nationwide demonstrations, according to the Norway-based human rights organization Iran Human Rights. Women in particular are standing up against the oppression by the mullahs.

Leyli is a football supporter who knows first-hand what it’s like to defy the authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. When the Tehran club FC Persepolis won the title of the “Iran Pro League” for the first time in nine years in 2017, she smuggled herself into the stadium for the last game of the season. “I like Persepolis because it’s a people’s club and I think its values ​​are different from other clubs. This club isn’t just a part of me, it’s my life,” says Leyli, who protects her identity pseudonym used.

“I wanted to see the trophy in the hands of then-captain Jalal Hosseini and nothing could stop me. I thought that maybe that moment would never happen again. And that I probably wouldn’t live to see them [die islamischen Behörden – Anm. d. Red.] open the gates of the stadium to women.”

“There is nothing behind it but a rotten belief”

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, women in Iran have felt the full brunt of state oppression. Among other things, they were forced to hide their hair with the hijab, the traditional headscarf. For over 40 years, women were also banned from attending men’s soccer games. The country’s arch-conservative clergy believes that women have no place in stadiums with fanatical male fans and their sometimes vulgar slogans. Soccer fan Leyli resigned himself to only watching World Cup qualifiers, Asian Champions League finals or top domestic league games on TV. Until that last matchday of the 2016/17 season.

“I wanted to be there at all costs and I asked myself: ‘Why can’t I go? Why don’t they let us into the stadiums?’ It’s nothing more than a rotten belief. It’s disrespectful to force women to limit their opportunities.” So she did the only thing she thought possible to get into the huge Azadi Stadium with its capacity of up to 100,000: Leyli disguised herself as a man and hid her female proportions.

“It wasn’t easy at all,” she recalls. “I wore a lot of clothes on top of each other. I also had to put on makeup. I was worried it wouldn’t be enough to fool the police.” Hours before kick-off, she drove across town to secure a ticket. And there was another problem: “I really didn’t want to go to the toilet in the stadium, so I couldn’t even drink anything.” There was always the danger of being discovered by security forces or secret police who were in the crowd. “I was scared, very scared. I didn’t know what would happen if they discovered I wasn’t a man and what my punishment would be.”

The “Blue Girl”

A tragic incident two years later showed that Leyli’s concerns were not unfounded. In March 2019, Sahar Khodayari, a female supporter of Persepolis’ local rivals Esteghlal Tehran, was caught disguised as a man watching her team’s match at the stadium. Learning that she was facing a six-month prison sentence, Khodayari burned herself in front of the Islamic Revolutionary Court building. She became known as the “Blue Girl”. At the stadium, she wore a blue wig and dressed entirely in Esteghlal’s club color, blue. Other women have been jailed for illegally visiting stadiums. Forough Alaei, Zahra Khoshnavaz, Leili Maleki and Hedieh Marvasti were released in 2019 after their families paid $11,000 each.

Leyli went to the games alone because she felt it was safer. “If you go to the stadium disguised as a boy, there’s no point in having someone with you because you can’t speak anyway. Otherwise they could tell who you really are from your voice,” she explains. “And you can’t help each other anyway. So it’s better to be alone.”

Stadiums now closed to all

Internationally, the pressure on the Iranian sports authorities increased. World governing body FIFA got involved, and the Iranian women’s rights movement “Open Stadiums” made itself heard around the world. And those in power in Tehran gave in temporarily – at least a little.

When the new season of the Iranian league started in August, the authorities allowed a limited number of women access to a separate area of ​​the Azadi Stadium. On August 31, Leyli also entered the arena undisguised for the first time, quite legally, and celebrated Persepolis’ 2-0 win over Sanat Naft. “It was a completely different feeling,” says Leyli. “At first I couldn’t believe that I could just go there in my own clothes like that. It was so strange that I even forgot to take photos and videos.”

The stadium gates are now closed again, but this time for men too – because of the ongoing protests in the country. For Leyli, football doesn’t feel so important anymore. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”