The people of Iran continue to take to the streets to protest, to bring about a change in the country. Soccer supporter Sahar Khodayari is one of all those who have fallen victim to the regime’s laws.
“Zan, zendegi, azadi” – woman, life, freedom – is chanted in and outside Iran, in the fight against the Islamic regime and for a free life where women are equal to men. Azadi Stadium is also the name of the country’s largest football arena, which the national team and the big club Esteghlal share. But there is not much freedom there either, as women are prohibited from going to football in Iran.
There are those who have defied this law. Sahar Khodayari loved football, and wanted to watch his favorite team Esteghlal. To enter the arena, she therefore used to dress up as a man. She put on a blue wig, dressed in a long coat and fooled the entrance attendants. “The blue girl”, she was called, for Esteghlal’s blue colors.
But then in March 2019, the morality police discovered and arrested her, at the entrance to a match. The sentence was estimated to be six months in prison, with the justification that she “committed a sinful act by appearing in public without a veil”. In desperation and protest, Sahar set himself on fire outside a courthouse in Tehran, suffering burns to 90 percent of his body and severely damaging his lungs. After three days in hospital, she was dead.
Attention to the fate of the girl in blue became widespread, and FIFA demanded that Iran admit female spectators. As a result, the country opened the gates to women at some matches, but always in limited numbers who had to sit in a separate section. More like a PR stunt than anything else.
The right to go to football is of course secondary to things like the right to divorce, to travel without the permission of the spouse, or behind the fact that rape within marriage is not recognized. But the arena ban is nevertheless an expression of the extensive oppression women have to endure, one of all the rights they have been deprived of and are fighting to get back.
Esteghlal won the Iranian Super Cup the other week, but when it came time for the award ceremony, something unusual happened. The team had to receive the trophy, and was expected to jubilantly raise it towards the sky. But there were no shouts of victory – none of the players showed any joy at all. In solidarity with the protests, they refused to celebrate. If the blue girl was watching from the sky, she could be proud of her team.
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Iran steps into the 2022 World Cup on Monday, when they face England. Here you can read about WC 2022 live streams, and here you can check betting & odds on WC 2022.
Wenn man keine Freude verspürt. Heute hat iranischer Fußballverein @FcEsteghlal den Super Cup gewonnen. Das Team zeigte keine Regung und iranisches Staatsfernsehen bricht Übertragung mittendrin ab. Zuschauer sind übrigens seit Beginn der Proteste verboten #Iran #IranProtests2022 pic.twitter.com/HSkOhoK1e7
— Natalie Amiri (@NatalieAmiri) November 2, 2022
Image credit to Aryzad, Maometto97 and Mehdi Bolourian