• Tragedy: An Iranian activist who tried to enter a men's soccer stadium burns to death

Azadi, in Persian, means freedom. Azadi is the name of the main stadium in Tehran, built by the megalomaniac Reza Pahlevi , the last Sha, among whose delusional megalomaniacs was to organize the 1984. Olympic Games. The same name gave the Azadi tower, the main monument of the capital. The Islamic Revolution led by Khomeini in 1979 ended the Sha regime without ending repression and the absence of freedom. In the most extreme interpretation of Islam, Shiites closed the public space to women. The stadium was just one more. Throughout these 40 years, the struggle of the Iranian woman has allowed her to recover some spaces, but the stadium remained the last wall of soccer shame, the only one where women could not enter. The suicide of an amateur who was going to be convicted of trying to circumvent the ban has mobilized the world shortly before, on Thursday, in the official Iran-Cambodia party, women enter a place that should never have been called Freedom.

They will not be the first, of course, but now they will not have to wear false mustaches , nor tear down the security fences, as when it was impossible to contain the mob that invaded the stadium, on December 1, 1997, to receive the first selection that He had qualified for a World Cup, the one held in France a year later. Nor will they be diplomats, nor wives of players or managers , as the group invited by the authorities to Iran-Bolivia or Persepolis-Kashima, last year, to export an image and placate the pressure of NGOs. The top image belongs to the first of these meetings. This time there will be 4,000 women who will enter after acquiring a specific ticket.

Separated from men

There is therefore a restriction, a sort of 'apartheid', but for international sports authorities it is a first step. The same is true in Saudi Arabia, which until last year maintained the same ban. Now they can go to the stadiums, but separated from the men, after some reforms promoted by Prince Mohamed bin Salman , among which he was also allowed to lead women. The diplomacy of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and, in particular, of the Spanish executive Pere Miró , allowed the Saudi team to integrate two women for the first time in the 2012 Olympic team in London. Judoca Wojdan Shaherkani competed with a black cap like the swimming ones. It lasted seconds in the tatami and was qualified by the ulemas of his country as the "Olympic whore." In Rio, four years later, there were four selected Saudi.

The access to the stadiums or the entry into the Olympic teams does not end the restrictions, of course. The Italian Super Cup was held in Arabia, among critics of the organizers, and the Spanish Federation is exposed to the same , after having reached an initial agreement to organize the first four Super Cup in Riyadh promoted by Luis Rubiales. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin was clear in asking national federations not to take competitions in their field to countries where women do not freely access the stadiums.

The call of Gianni Infantino , president of FIFA, has triggered the suicide of Sahar Kodayari , an amateur who was arrested while trying to enter the Azadi stadium to watch a game of his team, the Esteghal, last month. After spending two days in jail, he was awaiting trial, with the threat of returning for six months, and he was burned down before the court. It is the martyr who reminds football of his shame.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Luis Rubiales
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