Shirzanan: This team had its first visit to Iran last year for a friendly match and this year will be their second trip. They have scheduled to have classes in softball for Iranian players.

Shirzanan: Raziye Saaiedi, the former Gymnastics player said that many of Iran’s athletic federations do not report the women’s sports news. This has caused a gap in sports news area.”

Please see on "Farsi Version"

Shirzanan: Although Paridar has left the team because of a disagreement with Pourkashian, the chess federation has invited Paridar for the women’s national chess team again. She is very strong and the chess federation wants to have her in their team.

Shirzanan: Iran women’s rowing team that recently came back from the Olympics qualifications has started its practices. Omran Pourasgarparast, the head of Iran’s rowing committee said, “Homa Hosseini is in a good shape now but if she get bad results we will send another person instead.”

Shirzanan: Nemati, the taekwondo player for Iran women’s national team who won the fist Gold medal in Asian games said, “I was sure that I will win, although I was in a tough group I was not scared.” The federation will have a match between she and Sara Khoshjamal to choes one of them for Olympics. Nemati said, “ this was the federation’s decision and it has not been finalized yet.”

Shirzanan: The question was “ what is the best that the sports authorities can do plan for the two Iranian women athlete Olympic qualifiers?” Your votes were: 43.3% voted for the Budget increase, 40% voted for More international competitions, 13.3% voted for Hiring a foreign coach and 3.3% voted for Don’t change anything.

Shirzanan: The first preparatory camp for Ping-Pong Paralympic athletes will start this month. The Paralympic 2008 will be held in Beijing.

Shirzanan: The official website for the international Judo Federation has released al report of the 2008 Asian Games. This report said, “ Muslim women with their Islamic athletic outfits portrayed a very attractive image of Judo for the world. The Hijab has enabled women from Muslim countries like Iran to compete along side their country men in international fields.”

Shirzanan: The Macao Asian games has started with lost of hope for Iran women’s national Wushu team. Last year they won their first medals in China and they recorded their names as the first Iranian women Wushu players wining Asian medals. Ameneh Ehsaninejad, the head coach for Talo tea, has her hopes high. She says that the team is in a very good shape and they progressed a lot in their practices. The team has two new players although they do not have any international experience they are well prepared.

Etemad-e Meli Newspaper

May 6th

The German newspaper, Spiegel, will have a special report on the attendance of Muslim women in international sports competitions and football games. This report was based on the documentary, Football Undercover.

May 4th

The rowers that became qualified for the Olympics will get 5 million Tomans award each. They give 10 million to the gold medalist and 5, 3 and 2 to the other qualifiers. This will give Homa Hoseeini 2 million Tomans award.

Iran-e Varzeshi News paper, May 9th

The sixth Middle Asia Junior’s Ping Pong competition has started this week in Tehran Ping Pong Academy with four teams from Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. From Iran in female junior team, Mahboobeh Omrani, Anna Fayazian, Sahar Rahnamahaghighi and Rozita Aemedost will play.

Sarmayeh Newspaper, May 8th

Based on ISNA, the head coach of Iran women’s national karate team said that three more coaches will help the team and this new help will increase Iran’s chances to the victory in Malaysia’s Asian games.

Etemad May 5th

About wome’s national Futsal team, Shojaie, the deputy manager of football federation, said, “In order to see a difference and to have a strong performance in Vietnam’s indoor games we need to hire a fulltime foreign coach.”

Iran Newspapaer May 5th

The development of women’s sports is a long-term goal in Iran. Robab Shahrian, the manager of the centre fro development of women’s sports, said in sports’ officials meeting in Gilan province that “ in 30 of Iran provinces we are building more facilities specifically designed for women. She continued in Iran women are active in 44 sports and 80 thousands coaches and 60 thousands referees are active in different athletic fields.

But Taimourtash, the deputy manager of the Boating and Rowing Federation has another view, “The main thing is not the legal action and blaming one another. We don’t want to take any legal action. We want to investigate this issue and of course we will do everything we can for her family. We need to learn from this and to perform better next time. It is no use to blame others and this was just something that happened. We need to improve our medical performances. We need to look at this loss as a lesson for the future. Our goal is to overcome our problems.”

She denied any legal actions from Iran boating and rowing federation against Tehran’s Emergency Department.

When asked what Marziyeh Babaabbasi’s family’s position was, Taimourtash said, “They want the federation to investigate. We should wait for the autopsy report to pursue the matter farther. The athlete herself could have done something wrong, like doping. Or she might have had heart problems. In twenty days we will know what exactly happened.”

The head of the federation said, “Mrs. Babaabbasi had sports insurance that will pay her Diyeh (Blood Money) to her family.”

Although this catalogue of errors had cost Babaabbasi her life, the media ignored the story and paid little attention to the circumstances surrounding her death. There were no roundtable or press conferences regarding this case. Her husband’s illness to follow-up is also contributing to a lack of investigation in to the negligence surrounding his wife’s death.

As if being the subject of media censorship in their active lives is not enough, Iranian sportswomen suffer the same censorship in death. The news of their sporting victories is not important enough to publish alongside news of male athletes. It seems the life of Iran’s women athletes is also less valuable than men’s.

The Catalogue of Errors That Led to Death

At 5pm: At the end of the race, Marziyeh Babaabbasi from Lorestan Team goes to the doctor on duty in the Azadi Stadium, complaining about heart pain and dizziness. After a preliminary examination, the medical person in charge sent her to the dormitory to rest.

At 7pm: Babaabbasi complains of a very sharp pain in her stomach and numbness in her left arm, her friends take her to the stadium’s infirmary. The diagnosis is muscular spasm so they give her muscle relaxant and release her.

At 7.30pm Her condition deteriorates. Her friends take her to the infirmary. The medical team insist that there is nothing wrong and she should go back to her dormitory.

At 9PM: Babaabbasi is unconscious. Her friends transfer her to Kimia infirmary. This time the doctors detect a heart problem and after putting her in an oxygen tent she feels better. But their defibrillating equipment does not work properly so the doctor in charge asks for her to be transferred by ambulance to Tehran’s Heart and Cardiology Center.

At 11PM: It takes the ambulance one and a half hours to arrive. The ambulance is not equipped with oxygen cylinder. The doctor asks for an ambulance equipped with oxygen. At 11:15 PM: Babaabbasi’s body is too weak to escape error after error after error. She dies of a heart failure.

The LOCOG Chairman said: “We want to use the power of the Games to inspire change, and one of the key legacies the London 2012 Paralympic Games can leave is to change public and media attitudes towards people with a disability.”

Marjan Namazi has translated this research from English to Farsi for Shirzanan. (The main title: Research Shows Positive Attitude Towards Paralympics)

You can read the main article at: http://www.paralympic.org/release/M... Current_Affairs/2008_05_05_a.html