Interview
Shirzanan in an interview with the deputy manager of Iran Gymnastics Federation on women’s affair:
Women’s gymnastics won’t improve unless…
Shirzanan: Nigaar Khosravi / translated by Roja Najafi: “The club’s conditions in Iran is bad. The budget is not enough. Because of the Islamic dress codes we cannot even advertise for this sport. And naturally the news agencies don’t cover the news in this field.” These were the words of Jaleh Taghvaii, the deputy manager of Iran Gymnastics Federation, who still has her hope for Iran women’s gymnastics. During the interview anytime we get to discuss an obstacle of a problem she nods her head and says with a faint smile “Ensha-Allah, if the God wills, these problems get resolved.”
Please introduce yourself for Shirzanan readers?
I am Sayedeh Jaleh Taghvaii, the deputy manager of Gymnastics federation in women’s affair. I chair the division of Gymnastics in Schools and Education system and I am the head coach of Iran women’s national gymnastics team.
How is women’s Gymnastics situation in Iran? Do you get any supports from private clubs in Iran?
Kids and younger athletes get their educations in the elementary schools and there are many national competitions so we have a progress. But unfortunately there are no supports from bigger clubs for women’s gymnastics. I think this is a problem for all women’s athletic fields and not only for us. But our case is different and harder since we cannot advertise for our sport so the larger clubs hesitate in sponsoring women’s gymnastics while they back up men’s gymnastics. The Azad University and Abadan’s Oil Industry are among a few large sponsors of women’s gymnastics. Our women Gymnasts pay for the expenses out of their own packets.
What is the role of the national gymnastic competitions? How much budget do you get from the federation?
We have the National Championship competitions and the federation organizes it. Then since last year we have the women’s athletic Olympiad and this one is organized by the Athletic Education Organization. We pick women’s national team gymnasts through these national competitions. There are also occasional events and competitions but none of them are profitable. The gymnastics equipments are generally expensive and they wear out quickly. About 30% of the federation budget goes to women’s gymnastics. But I don’t believe that even that small amount goes wholly to women’s affair.
Where does Iran gymnastics stand among other Muslim countries? Was there any competition from which we can evaluate our level?
Fortunately, Mrs. Faezeh Hashemi has supported Women’s gymnastics in Iran. Our best chance for evaluating the women’s team so far was the Hambastegi (Correlation) competitions, which was an international event. Iran women’s gymnastic team has won the first and second titles as a team. We are very close to Armenia and Syria and this is good news since in both these countries women’s gymnastics is a much better situation. Because the clothing design is part of the competition we have some problems. In our communication with the FIG, the International Gymnastics Federation, we couldn’t reach any agreements. For Aerobic gymnastics and Trampoline-ing we will design our own clothing and see if the FIG approves it. Our only request from Iran gymnastics federation was to allow the women’s team to company the men’s team in international events only to be an audience. But even that was not accepted.
Why was that?
We asked the federation to send us for Olympics in China; they have a budget problem. If they accept our request we will be ore than happy.
What a bout refereeing an international competition? Do we have any Muslim women’s gymnastics referee from Iran?
Yes, in Aerobic gymnastics I was the first who performed as a referee in an international event in Spain thanks to Mr. Mohtashami. Then I invited Gelareh Kaviani to Macao Indoor Games. In gymnastics we also have Saharnaz Pasebanpour who has the referee card; we are waiting to hear FIG’s answer for her to go to Beijing Olympics. Mrs. Kavaini has a good record. She was a referee in England; she paid for her own trip. She placed third among the referees.
How about the coach? Are we going to hire a foreign coach for women’s national gymnastics team?
We have a few active coaches in women’s gymnastics in Iran mostly due to the fact that their salary is very low and since we don’t have enough equipped salons. So we share the practice court with other teams that give us death-hours in the day. Our gymnasts are student and they are busy at those available hours. Last year we had Mrs. Elena from Ukraine. If the federation helps us we will higher more international coaches.
What is the best score that Iran women’s national gymnastics team has achieved so far?
We won the first place in Islamic countries competition in 2001.
