May 8, 2006
Middle East Times

TEHRAN — Iran's supreme leader has vetoed an order by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to end a 26-year-old ban on allowing women in stadiums for major sporting events, the government said on Monday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, ruled that "the top clergy's opinion should be respected and this issue be reconsidered", government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

"The president said he would act as the supreme leader said," Elham added.

Last month Ahmadinejad ordered an end to a decades-old ban on women entering stadiums for major sporting events, including football matches.

Although this was hailed by women's rights activists, the directive did not go down well among religious right-wingers eager to maintain the male-female segregation ushered in by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.