Iran allows women to watch volleyball - but not football, swimming or wrestling

[shayan_esteghlali]

Than it makes even more sense to ban the men instead of the women.

I would fully support this, we would never loose a home game again, firstly our women are more passionate than our men, they are louder, and seeing beautiful women everywhere will make our players play better so they look good infront of the women, it would distract the opposing teams players

[Bi-honar]

Typical akhunds... they said they'd let them in when FIVB was threatening to cancel the games in Tehran and as soon as they get their way, they go back on it. we can pretty much expect the same result in the nuclear negotiations.

[Nokhodi]

60 people protested at the funeral of 175 martyrs and politicized the whole thing.
Classless bastards.
And the sad thing is these idiots are more afraid of the 60 crazies than 75 million people.

[Bi-honar]

The good news is that Molaverdi, the minister dealing with women and family affairs came down pretty hard on the hardliners in comments that are surely to increase tensions and raise the bar:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/female-iran-vp-scolds-hardliners-over-volleyball-ban-115062000490_1.html

It's funny that she used the word sanctimonious to describe these hardliner, single perspective nutcases. Sanctimonious means pretending to be morally higher than other people. Where else do we see that on display quite frequently from few people?!

[04041374]

Iran allows women to watch volleyball - but not football, swimming or wrestling

They should've arrested those Lebanese bastards! These hardliners are the worst cancer in this country

[Abtin]

They should've arrested those Lebanese bastards! These hardliners are the worst cancer in this country

a little bit hard, when they have turned the nation into arab-parasti for 36 years and counting.

[Javeed]

According to women inside Iran who are campaigning to attend the matches as spectators, Iranian authorities reneged on promises that they could attend and restricted ticket sales to men three days before the opening match on Friday, June 19.Following the efforts by the FIVB in the past year to work with governing bodies around the world to ensure that female spectators are granted access to all volleyball matches, the FIVB followed the Iran v USA matches in Tehran closely.

Although the full access the FIVB sought was not provided, the FIVB understands and respects the situation at the match in Tehran and the need to prioritise the security of the public. As a sports organisation, the FIVB has no power to dictate cultural or social paradigms. However, we remain 100% committed to ensuring inclusivity, gender equality and universal access to sport around the world and will continue to work with all parties to ensure that this goal is achieved.

To the contrary, as the high priests of Volleyball and the overseer of international matches, the FIVB very much has the power to insist that Iranian women not be banned from tournaments it oversees. The Olympic Charter mandates it, and in 2015, Iran is very much an outlier in excluding women from watching sports.

In Iran, reformists and hardliners alike also want to see their team win in Volleyball, and that is where the leverage lies, if the FIVB is prepared to defend its own rules.

Luckily for the FIVB all is not lost.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/23/iranian-women-aren-t-even-allowed-watch-volleyball-now