Women were allowed on Thursday, January 27 for the first in three years in Iran to attend a football match in a stadium in Tehran between the national team and Iraq, counting for the qualification for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Ten thousand tickets, including two thousand reserved for women, were available for this match, the ISNA agency reported. Women enter the stadium through a special entrance through a parking lot where policewomen in chadors with red badges on their arms check arrivals. Men enter through another entrance. In October 2019, the last time women were allowed to attend an Iran team game, they were separated from the men and watched by female police officers. But since then national team matches have been held behind closed doors due to Covid-19 restrictions. For about 40 years, the Islamic Republic has generally prohibited female spectators from entering stadiums, particularly for football matches, because the clerics, who play a major role, maintain that they must be protected from the male atmosphere and view of partially undressed men. In September 2019, FIFA, world football’s governing body, ordered Iran to allow women unrestricted access to stadiums.