Women Attacked at Stadium

Rooz Online:

A group of 50 or-so women who had gathered outside the Azadi stadium in Tehran to enter the stadium to watch the soccer match between Iran and Costa Rica was attacked by the police. Iranian regulations and policy do not allow women to watch men’s sporting events in public. The event had been publicized by Internet websites and word of mouth by the women.

Following the web-blog invitation by a Tehrani woman for young Iranian women to physically participate in the Costa Rica – Iran match at the stadium, a group of women, some of whom had been allowed to watch last year’s soccer team between Iran and Bahrain just a few days before the current hardline president won the race to the presidency, gathered again last week to “exercise their civil rights,” as one of them explained and watch the game live. The enthusiasts had bought tickets and had gathered outside the stadium two hours before the match. They attempted to enter the stadium but were denied entrance because they were women. The women carried placards that read, “We want to encourage our esteemed national team” and, “Soccer without TV is our right.”

The women, who were wearing white scarves and holding flags of Iran, were challenged by the security and police forces right from the beginning. The police had been on the spot even before the women had arrived, and when the women began to gather, the police warned them that they would be arrested unless they broke up their gathering and left the scene. READ MORE

When Colonel Mohammad Hassan Assadi who is responsible for the security of the stadium arrived on the scene, things began to change, eventually leading to a scuffle between his force and the women. According to eye witnesses, the colonel grabbed the flags in the hands of the women and then cursed them through public speaker system and then told his force, “Do not speak with these people. Just beat them up.” Witnesses said that the colonel personally attacked a young woman of about 14 or 15 years old and struck a blow at her. He then turned his attention to the reporters who were covering the incident and after asking checking her press card, grabbed her notes from her hands.

After the soccer match began, a member of Tehran Council’s Logistics Council, Mousavi, requested to talk with the women. When a mini-bus arrived at the scene, he promised on the Quran to take the women inside the stadium. After the women boarded the bus, instead of driving to the stadium, the women were taken to Azadi square a few miles a way. The women insisted, and after renting a mini-bus, returned to the stadium gates. At this time colonel Assadi threatened the women by saying that “if I had the permission, I would beat up all of you and send you to prison.”

The game progressed and ended while the standoff between the young women and the police continued with physical assaults on the women.

Iran’s official media either ignored the event, or presented the women as “trouble-makers” and “disrupters.” But Iranian web bloggers, including some of the women participants in the stadium demand, have posted their accounts of the events and their cause. Here and here are two examples.