Photos by Maryam Majd (Part II). Please see portfolio HERE

The Gorgan team decided to go easy and did not put pressure on the players, because it was certain that they go to the other round. But the case was not the same for all the teams. The teams on the middle of the chart tried their best; Hijab from Shirza and Haft Almas from Qazvin had an exciting and neck to neck competition, where at the end Shirza won 62 to 54.

Hassan Nayebi, Shiraz head coach, who was present at the court all through the game told Shirzanan, “Although we our place in the chart is set, we like to get better results in every match. Unfortunately among the 14 teams participating in this league only two teams are in the good shape, Foulad Sepahan and Sanaate Naft. The rest, are really suffering from the lack of sponsors.”

Arezo Mohebzadeh, Haft Almas captain, while hugging her little daughter, said, “It wasn’t a satisfying game. Unfortunately we had to come here one day sooner than we planned, because of the weather. This salon is not standard for league competitions. But the matches were on time and there were no canceled games; in this sense this year’s league was a more organized than last year’s.”

Both teams were unhappy about the cold weather, the lack of heater, and the distance of the stadium from the city. Dehghan, the game’s main referee told Shirzanan, “ luckily we had a very calm game with no injuries, the two teams were close in technical level and they performed equally good.”

Asghar Khaleghy the head of Cycling federation said, “Iran women’s cycling team had no international experience beside the Asian games. So we decided to kind of examine the team via Qatar games. We found two cycling tours, on in china and one in Qatar. China tour will be after Nourooz [Persian New Year in March].”

He explained, “After the formation of women’s national cycling team, each year we selected the best cyclists from the national league. The case is the same with the team this year.” Iran’s women’s cycling team is only two years old.

In September, Iran women’s national Kabaddi team defeated Thailand and got to the finals, but there it lost to the host of the Asian championship, India. This is the first year that Iran has the primary national league. The league will be held in Qazvin. 11 provinces with 13 clubs are participating in the competitions.

The new published rankings places Mastaneh on the top of the chart; these rankings are made after Fajr competitions last year. The second and third places are belong to Fatemeh Heidary and Raheleh Baghery.

Shirzanan reports that Naft-e Tehran won over the Haiat Fars team 24 to 23. In other matches, Isfahan Zobeahan won over Naft-o Gaz Gachsaran 40 to 23 and got to the head of the chart with 2 scores.

Shirzanan reports, that Isfahan Zobahan defeated Azad University 3 to 0 in three competitive sets. Gilan won Pardis from Qazvin 3-2 and Naft-e Tehran won Heiat Hamedan 3 to 0.

Maryam Majd our colleague and Photographer is among the top three photographers chosen by the jury committee for this celebration. Maryam Majd is a photography student and had collaborated with Shirzanan from its fist issue.

Her nonstop and energetic efforts in reporting the first images of women’s sports in Iran filled the deep gap in women’s images in sports news. She won this prize for her engaging photos of sara Khoshjamal Fekri, Female Olympian from Iran in taekwondo.

We are all honored to work with our young, energetic and intelligent photographer, Maryam Majd, and we wish her the best of bests in her future adventures.

.... I have achieved national championship in 10 consecutive national tournaments in three athletic fields, football, Kabbadi and Alysh wrestling. For one year I practiced under the supervision of my dear coach Mrs. Moaff and after that for 6 years I played for Peykan team and Azad Unoversity team under the supervision of Ms. Ahnaz Amirshaghaghi. I am thankful to all my coaches. After my early trainings I professionally continued in Kabaddi and Alysh. I continued with zero facilities, equipments, appliances and financial support. Because of my love and devotion to sports I practiced hard and I got qualified for different international competitions, such as the one in Russia wrestling on belt championship.

I have had no support after 2005. Our team in Kabaddi got to the second place in Asian championship and I still am struggling with financial problems. For a two-hour practice I have to be in the bus for 7 hours. Commuting is long and expensive. The officials in Physical Education Organization very well know that an athlete should be well trained, nutrition wise and physically as well as mentally in order to win a competition. But until today that I have become a national champion I have received no financial supports from any athletic organization.

I have hoped for so long that one of the officials in PEO or the federation will follow up on my needs; I start from 6 am everyday, and get back home at 10pm regardless of the season just to get to my practice sessions. I wrote many letters to many different offices, to get some little help, but I had received no attention so far. Athletes have no body in Iran if the PEO doesn’t care for them. I like to somehow get this message to Mr. Aliabadi, the honorable head of Iran’s Physical Education Organization.

I like to ask him why no one under his supervision cares for my problems, for lack of athletic facilities in our county and for financial supports for the countries national champion. My father is a peasant, a worker with an average income. I live in a far away village in Tehran province. I am an active athlete in three athletic fields. And I am asking why PEO’s attitude is killing the motives of young female athletes. I am strong and I won’t lose my energy and motivation. Dear God, you help me to be stronger!

..... Bayan Mahmoudy, a soccer player with the heist number of goals in women’s football league 2008, is playing for Nassaji Oghba-e Mazandaran football team this year. She says, “If the football clubs weren’t there, there were no income for a professional female football player. Iran Football Federation doesn’t pay the national team players. We know that the deputy manager of football federation, Shojaie, is doing her best, but no results yet.” Bayan does not reveal the details of her contract but she says that her contract with Nassaji is more than 3 million Tomans (between 3 to 4 thousand dollars). I get paid more than many female football players but this is much less than any other male football player.”

Masoumeh Jahanchi, women’s national football team captain and a player for Malavan-Rasht club, sadly says, “ This is the first year I am getting paid from the club and my sallery is a bit more than 1million Tomans (around $2000). I am a member of Iran’s women’s national football team for over four years now. But in all these years I did not get paid. We only get paid when going to international competitions and that is only $200. I only play football because I like it. But id doesn’t pay off.”

Ghazal Sarshar, 36, Volleybal player for Saipa team and a former national team member, did not reveal her salary and said, “ I am extremely happy with Saipa, they pay us as much as they can. Of course the money is not even close to what men are getting.”

Nejatizadeh, the deputy manager of Vollyeball federation said, “Unfortunately up to know there were no monthly salary for the national team players. That is partly because we don’t have fixed players in the team. There are some plans in the next two years for women’s national teams to pay their players. Men’s national volleyball team gets paid by the federation and that is not fair to women players to work without pay.”

The salary case is the same with women basketball players; their salary is much smaller than men’s in clubs and the federation doesn’t pay them. Karamzadeh, the deputy of Basketball federation, told Shirzanan, “The numbers are not compatible between men’s and women’s teams. The best women basketball player gets paid about 14million Tomans annually, (about $15000) but an average male basketball player has the annual income of 100 milliun Tomans.”

Female chess players have similar disadvantages in their salary. Atousa Pourkashian, who is playing for Bandar Abbass Petrochimi team, does not reveal her salary but stated that, “So far I have only got paid two times by Chess federation. The annual income for a woman chess players is between 200 to 300 thousand Tomans.”

In fencing, Mahdiyeh Montazeran said, “Unfortunatly the fencing federation is so under budget that they don’t even pay the fencers for the international games. I don’t know if men’s team has the same situation. Women’s fencing team has many financial problems for deployment, hiring coaches and putting together preparatory camps.”

Golnaz faezi, a badminton player in women’s national team, openly talks about her salary and her contracts, “I am having a contract with Foolad Mobarakeh Sepahan for the league, and I am getting paid 500 thousand Tomans a year. The federation doesn’t pay me and the contracts conditions are very different from the men’s team. It is ridiculous. We are al playing because we love it. And we are all stressed out because of it.”

Mahin Farhadi, sports expert and a university professor, said, “each sport is different from the other and their federations are run differently. The clubs have better financial situation than the national federations because they earn more money.”

Boating federation equally pays its athletes and there is no difference between men and women’s salaries.

Hadavi, the former national basketball team head coach and a university professor, believes, “The national federations are not supposed to pay the players. It is the club’s job to pay the athletes. Unfortunately the professional sport has not defined in Iran yet. And that’s why everyone suffers. It is sort of natural for female athletes to get paid less than male athletes because their teams don’t make as much money as men’s teams. They don’t have sponsors and they cannot advertise in their games.