IRAN: WOMEN FORBIDDEN TO WATCH FOOTBALL MATCH
Tehran, 2 March (AKI) - Security forces forcibly blocked 50 women attempting to enter Tehran's Azadi stadium to watch a football match on Thursday between Iran and Costa Rica. The women arrived at the stadium a few hours before the match and showed their tickets at the main entrance. However, they were immediately surrounded by the police and chased away with batons. A 15-year-old student reported head injuries and had to be taken to hospital.
After being sent away by the police, the women gathered again in front of the stadium's main entrance and asked to meet the police chief.
"At this point, the representative of the capital's governor arrived and after he failed to convince us to give up on the game, he promised that he would let us in from a side entrance," one of the demonstrators to Adnkronos International (AKI).
"We were forced to board a bus with the promise that we would be let in through the entrance reserved to authorities, but the driver drove away from the stadium and stopped only in Revolution Square, where he made us get off," Parastou told AKI.
Thirty of the most determined female football fans returned once again to the stadium where many of them were hit by "one of their commanders, colonel Mohammad Hassan Asadi, who threatened to arrest us and send us to the Evin jail," Parastou said. The clashes ended after the match, which was won by Iran.
No law formally bans women from stadiums. However, they are usually not allowed inside. Only twice in the past have small groups of women succeeded in watching a game, the last time in June 2005.
(Rah/Aki)
Mar-02-06 16:02
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