4/26/2006
AFP

TEHRAN — Several Iranian hardline MPs were up in arms on Tuesday over a decision by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to end a long-standing ban on women in stadiums, warning of the dangers of "bare legs" and male spectators shouting obscenities at referees.

"We call on the president to annul the order to allow women into stadiums," an ultraconservative MP from Isfahan, Mohammad-Taghi Rahbar, was quoted as saying by the student news agency ISNA.

"The presence of women in stadiums is against moral, social and Islamic values. This is a hasty order," he complained. "According to Islamic law, it is not right for women to watch men's bare legs."

Another religious right-winger in the parliament, Saeed Abutaleb, complained of a "lack of cultural preparation" for letting women in football stadiums for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Our point is not Islamic law," he said. "Women can go, but there needs to be cultural education beforehand … I think police can not even provide security for explosive materials, let alone security of women," said the MP, a member of the assembly's cultural commission.

Another MP warned that hooliganism was the main danger for women.

"Hundreds of buses have been set alight by vandals after big matches. There have been no serious efforts made by the concerned organization to create a suitable culture for the audience," commented Javad Aryanmanesh, an MP from Mashhad.

He also noted that "sometimes, spectators spit the worst profanities at fans of the rival team or the referee".

Ahmadinejad, himself a hardliner, announced on Monday that Iranian women can finally go to stadiums to watch sporting events, putting an unexpected end to a quarter-century ban.

"It should be planned in a way that women are respected and are given the best places to watch national and important games," the president wrote in an order to the head of Iran's Physical Education Organization.

The president argued that despite reservations, "experience has proven that when women and families are allowed into stadiums, ethics and chastity will prevail".

Since the Islamic revolution ushered in segregation of the sexes and a strict dress code for women, only a tiny number of Iranian women have been allowed inside stadiums – despite a national passion for football that is shared by men and women alike.

Only the very few women able to secure official invitations to VIP sections of the stands have been able to watch live sporting events. Even female sports journalists have been given extremely limited access.

The Physical Education Organization's security chief, Mehdi Farahani, admitted that the new directive would "take time to implement" – meaning that women are unlikely to see a World Cup warm-up match against Bosnia in the northeastern city of Mashhad on May 31.

"We need time to furnish the stadiums with the necessary means to accommodate them. There is the issue of separate toilets and separate entrances and exits," he said.

But he did add that "allowing women and families into stadiums will lighten the atmosphere".