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Iran women’s national Whitewater slalom canoeing team has started their preparatory camp

Many problems are occurring after the recent wave of displacing and appointing in the Athletic Education Organization in Tehran. In answering the criticisms the newcomers declare that higher authorities have chosen them.

Fifty-five female football players were invited to the qualification camp for women’s national team

....... In this memo Ahmadinejad wrote “ In contrary to some people’s beliefs, the experience has shown that the presence of women and families in public places such as sports stadiums has helped the values of our Islamic society to build a family friendly and healthy environment. The Athletic Education Organization with the help of the Interior Ministry of Iran can work out a plan in order to give some seats of every stadium specifically to women. So they can be present in important national games.”

After the president’s letter got published, 120 of the conservative in the Iranian Parliament harshly criticized the President’s letter and asked him to change his orders. The criticisms did not stop there and soon after Ayatollah Fazel-e Lankarani issued a Fatwa overruling President’s order by calling women’s presence in football stadiums anti-Islamic. Also Ayatollah Makarem-e Shirazi in his speech in Qom’s Grand Masque objected to President Ahmadinejad’s views on women’s presence in sports grounds and said, “All over the world, football stadiums are notorious for their unsafe environments. Stadium’s security is so low that robberies and fights take place regularly. Sometimes people get killed in fights. How careless can one be to suggest women and families to go to such unsafe places?” These criticisms forced the newly elected President to change his words to keep the conservatives’ supports on his back.”

Despite the fact that women are banned from watching the games in Tehran’s 100-thousand seat Stadium, in many other cities of the country, women don’t face any problems. It has been said that in Kerman during the 90’s women were largely present at stadiums as spectators. Also in north of Iran young girls had watched Persepolis-Malavan game in stadium. After the news of such occasions got released, girls were allowed in at Esfahan’s Fooladshahr Stadium. In all these games, where women were allowed to go inside the stadiums, the crime rates were much less compare to the games without women’s presence.

In this regard a former football player (gentleman) said: “ Women are always present in men’s basketball and volleyball games and bad manners never occur in those indoor games. Boys watch their mouth and everything always goes smoothly. In football stadiums without women men behave awfully disgusting.” Dr. Mohammad Javadi, the sociologist, also believes that women’s presence in the stadiums will help to improve the cultural that is dominant in today’s stadiums.