Akram Shaabani the member of Iran women’s arching team described for Shirzanan, “ this tournament is very though and everyone is coming to win medals. We are prepared and practiced.” She continued, “ in 10 days there will be the World cup in France and if I get chosen for the women’s national team I will attend in it.”

Please see on Farsi Version.

Please see on Farsi Version

Shirzanan: For the first time in Iran a female karateka was able to name a new style after herself. Mehrangiz Mozafari, the female karateka and former karate coach has established a new technique called Voo-do-Rio [sic].

Nejatiezadeh, the deputy of volleyball federation said, “ this was the first time Iran participated in the Asia primary league and although some of the players were members of women’s national team the result was not good.”

In Single Kayak, Raheleh Mohammadmirzaie and in Double Kayak, Sima Ouroji and Arezo Motamedi are participating in these competitions. In these competitions they will have a chance to evaluate their Olympic opponents.

Shirzanan: The third round of the primary league has begun in Sanandaj with 10 teams. The head of skating federation, said “ we will invite women roller skaters who can get new record in the primary league to the national team.” Iran will compete in Spain at the end of September.

This match was held in Iran’s Taekwondo house and Sara Khoshjamal was the ultimate champion. Maryam Mehrazar, the women’s national taekwondo coach said, “ Sara was very motivated because she won the Olympic qualification herself and also the level of Fatemeh’s self-confidence has motivated her more.”

Please on Farsi Version

Shirzanan: Sepideh Tavakoly, Iran’s youth record holder got to the sixth place in High Jumping in the 13th athletics youth competitions in Asia.

Shirzanan: The national women’s Wushu camp has started last week in Isfahan. Raziyeh Tahmasbi, the Wushu medalist said, “ We are preparing ourselves for the world championship.

The Chinese coach is very good and since there is a small group of us we are getting individual attention from the coach. But the budget for our camps are really low and with this kind of camps we cannot get results.”

Although This number shows immense improvements compare to the previous year, when the number of women participants were less than half of 2006, we need to ask if this is enough for a country like Iran with 78 million population?

Is there any reliable statistics for us to see how many women in Iran are engaged in sports? When there is no subtle and scientific statistic to be found in Iran, about anything let alone women’s sports, it is hard to have any reliable studies on women’s sports. For example there are many private and governmental organizations that provide sports facilities for their employees but their numbers have not been counted with in Iran’s sports statistics and surveys.

There is not enough documents on the number of women in sports in Iran and the very few studies are not inline with one another and the huge differences in the results makes everyone wonder what is the real number of women in sports . The Athletic Education Organization website has published in 2006-2007 that 585,543 women athletes were covered by the health insurance of the medical-athletics federation; the same study done by the women’s statistic center of socio-cultural consuls shows different results – 1, 273,006 up until 2003 –

Based on the number of insurance cards issued for the women athletes – no one is allowed to register in athletic clubs without a health insurance card – there are less than one million women athletes in Iran. 33 million of the country’s populations at the end of 2003 were women; putting in comparison having only 1 million sportswomen with such population should raise the alarm.

Based on the statistics given by the health and athletic organization, Gilan province is has the most athletic population in the country with 99 percent of its population active in sports, 37,000 of them are women. And second active province is Ilam with 9 thousand sportswomen and the third province is Yazd, by 16 thousand women athletes. Among the big provinces Tehran province that houses the capital of the country is in the 11th place but the number of women athletes are 160,000, which is the highest number in the country.

Although the need for accurate and exact statistics on women’s sports in Iran is obvious, but the current available numbers should be enough to alarm the authorities and make them to work harder on women’s sports in order to engage them more in athletic activities. Based on IWNA’s report in Spanish women are the most athletic women in Europe where women exercise 38 minutes daily.

Fatemeh Montazery said that her opponents in Paralympic are participating in Swiss games and this will give her a good chance to study them. Also Iran’s disabled shooting team has recently come back from world competitions and Nayereh Aakef came out second. The women’s of disabled table tennis team are continuing their practices and are hoping to see good results in September.

Iran’s national team will be back from Tunis on June 19th and imidiatly after that Fatemeh Montazery is going to attend the national disabled league. She said, “ I am devoted to my country but also to my province and that’s my motivation in going immediately for the national league after the world competitions.

Also Iran’s women disabled shooting Paralympic athlete, Aakef says, “10 days of each month I practice in the national camp and I will practice with my own coach for the rest. In Mashhad the line for free pistol is not standard and I have a long way to get to the world record which is 600 meter. My own record is 516.” It is the third time Nayereh Aakef participating in Paralympics, she explained, “I know my opponents and I know their weaknesses, and I need to focus in order to prove myself.”