Daily Times

BEIRUT: An Iranian women’s activist said she was stripped of a banner she planned to display at the World Cup in Russia on Wednesday and blocked from a stadium for two hours after an earlier protest drew international headlines. Maryam Qashqaei Shojaei said she was held for two hours by security officials at the main stadium in Kazan ahead of the match between Spain and Iran, having planned to raise a banner to protest Iran’s ban on women attending stadium matches. “When I was trying to get in with my banner, security told me I can’t take it in,” she said. “I showed them my approval. They searched me and held me two hours and took the banner.” Anton Lisin, a spokesman for Russia’s World Cup Local Organising Committee, said he was aware of an incident involving Shojaei but had no further details. World football’s governing body FIFA could not be immediately reached for comment. Shojaei made headlines during Iran’s first match against Morocco on Friday when she raised a banner in the St. Petersburg stadium with the slogan: “Support Iranian women to attend stadiums #NoBan4Women”. Ahead of the tournament – which is taking place in 11 cities and runs until July 15 – Shojaei launched an online petition urging FIFA President Gianni Infantino to put pressure on Iran to end the ban. The Islamic Republic has long barred women from attending male soccer matches and other sports fixtures, partly to protect them from hearing fans swear. Infantino said in May that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had told him there were plans to allow women to attend matches in the country soon. In April, female football fans donned fake beards and wigs to attend a major game in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium. Saudi Arabia last year overturned a ban on women watching sporting events, one of a series of reforms in the deeply conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom.

Published in Daily Times, June 22^nd 2018.