The Iranian woman was a dedicated football supporter. But since 1981, women in Iran have been prohibited from entering sports arenas during male events. Therefore, during a football match in March this year, the woman chose to dress for her husband - but she was captured and detained for three days.
The trial would have taken place last week, but when the woman realized that she was risking two years in prison, she decided to set fire to herself, the BBC reports.
"Of course, this is a very tragic event that we all hoped to avoid," says Fifa's Press Manager Hans Hultman.
Hultman tells SVT Sport that Fifa has long put pressure on the Iranian Football Association. Fifa's view is clear:
- Of course, women should be able to go to football. It worked intensively for Fifa.
On October 10, Iran will receive Kambojda in the qualifier for the World Cup in Qatar 2022. Then women should be allowed in the stands, Fifa says.
- We are in contact with the Iranian Football Federation, they are planning to first and foremost visit the women's qualifying matches that will be played in the future in October. Then of course it is a long process of change to get all the matches open for everyone to go on, says Hultman.
- We are pretty confident that it will work when the World Cup qualification starts later this fall.
So then is the hope that we will see women there at the matches? Is that what you hope for?
- Yes absolutely. Hope, or we are pretty convinced that we can trust the sacrifices that have been made to make it happen.
Fifa will now send a delegation to Iran to investigate how planning for the World Cup qualifiers works, both from a security point of view in match events.
- We can't expect this change to happen overnight. Let's start with this is the first step and then move on later and hope that this leads to other matches, not just World Cup qualifiers, being opened up for women to be able to play football.