It was so great to see women in the stadiums rooting for our Team Melli today. Melli which means belonging to Melat, was an empty name, when half our population were not allowed to come to the stadiums due to Talebanism that has prevailed in Iran for over 4 decades now. It is truly embarrassing that it took the force of FIFA threats to finally let half of our Melat to enjoy their right to cheer for our national team in person.
We tried and tried. To be honest, I had not watched the TM matches in person since my daughter was born. Even though I was always against this discriminatory rule and even wrote about it on this very forum, but it never prevented me from going to the stadium. That is until she was born.
It was the thought that I had to explain to my daughter "why she couldn't go to a stadium" that caused me to say to myself "enough of this hypocrisy". I stopped going. How can I both claim to support women's right to go to stadiums (or have equal rights as men for that matter) and then go to a stadium when my own daughter is denied the same?
Still as we say in Persian, any time you pull the fish out of water it is fresh. Better late than never. I am grateful for this change (notice I don't say achievement). Oh yeah, now we can all celebrate WC qualification as well with all the Mellat, like rest of the world and with the hope that other discriminatory laws such as forced hejab and equal rights (travel/divorce .....) are granted to all Iranians.
We tried and tried. To be honest, I had not watched the TM matches in person since my daughter was born. Even though I was always against this discriminatory rule and even wrote about it on this very forum, but it never prevented me from going to the stadium. That is until she was born.
It was the thought that I had to explain to my daughter "why she couldn't go to a stadium" that caused me to say to myself "enough of this hypocrisy". I stopped going. How can I both claim to support women's right to go to stadiums (or have equal rights as men for that matter) and then go to a stadium when my own daughter is denied the same?
Still as we say in Persian, any time you pull the fish out of water it is fresh. Better late than never. I am grateful for this change (notice I don't say achievement). Oh yeah, now we can all celebrate WC qualification as well with all the Mellat, like rest of the world and with the hope that other discriminatory laws such as forced hejab and equal rights (travel/divorce .....) are granted to all Iranians.
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