NILOUFAR ARDALAN IS one of the stars of Iranian women’s football, and captains the side to boot.
The national team are currently competing in the inaugural Asian Football Confederation Futsal Championship in Nilai, Malaysia, opening the tournament with a 6-0 defeat of Hong Kong on Monday and a 9-1 drubbing of Uzbekistan yesterday.
The captain is not there however because her husband – sports journalist Mahdi Toutounchi, refused to sign papers to allow his wife’s passport to be renewed.
Under Iranian law a man has the right to prevent his wife from leaving the country, and the player herself has been quick to express her disgust with the laws.
“These games were very important to me,” she told Nasimonline, according to news.com.au. “As a Muslim woman, I wanted to work for my country’s flag to be raised (at the games), rather than traveling for leisure and fun.”
She added: “I wish authorities would create [measures] that would allow female athletes to defend their rights in such situations.”
Breaking silence is a dangerous move for Ardulan in a country that is notoriously backward in its treatment of women:
- Female Iranian athletes are all but barred from participation in the Olympic Games.
- Iranian women are allowed to compete in sports that require the removal of the hijab (a veil that covers the head and chest), but only in all-female arenas.
- Women cannot wear Lycra as it is apparently too form-fitting and revealing. Female Iranian rowers have in the past been forced to wear their hijab secured by a hat, baggy tops and tracksuit bottoms.
- The ‘football revolution’ in Iran in 1997 saw hundreds of Iranian women storm a stadium from which they were banned after the men’s team qualified for the 1998 World Cup. Since those events many restrictions on women in the country have been restored and tightened.
Gender equality activists hope Niloufar Ardulan’s case will highlight the severe problems surrounding female sporting participation in the extremely conservative state.
They must sweat buckets.
I presume she can’t divorce the bollix.She will neither be caught playing away from home or offside,anytime soon.
And Europe is importing millions of people from this ‘culture’
You import goods. People migrate. Islam is a faith. Not all make it their raison d’etre and culturalise it. Your figures are skewed and Muslims happily live here and integrate. These people are leaving this….
Just as Irish culture is not the same as Norwegian culture, Syrian culture is not the same as Iranian culture.
Interesting article today about an all-women Palestinian motor racing team who compete in the West Bank’s professional car-racing circuit:
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/fast-furious-female-meet-the-all-women-palestinian-racing-team-bringing-the-speed-to-the-ifi-docfest-1.2363177
But she should kick the bollix in the bolls, at least!
Their husbands dont allow them to sweat
MaryLou(ny)McDonald: Do you not understand that people want to escape this culture just as much as you would if you found yourself in such a country?
Isn’t it odd how modern feminism neglects to criticise Islam or try to actually help these women. Instead focusing on micro-aggressions such as how men sit on trains, or trying to make consensual drunk sex equal rape – it’s like something from a Monty Python skit.
silly man. how dare you try to raise a perfectly valid point. Hide you kids, hide your wife, cos the feminazis are now coming for you
“focusing on micro-aggressions such as how men sit on trains, or trying to make consensual drunk sex equal rape – it’s like something from a Monty Python skit.”
And that’s how you know it’s dying and will be hammered in the next few years as more and more people see it as there for the taking. It’s a joke.
I love seeing sad, little MRAs announce the demise of feminism. So cute.
To be fair, a mate of mine couldn’t play astro the other night because his missus had invited “guests” over.
I know it’s not enshrined into our law that she can do it, but let’s not pretend like the same doesn’t happen here.
Well said! Wives in Ireland have too much power! Ruining social lives!
There are folks reading thejournal.sa (Saudi version) carrying stories about lads missing pints or matches over here, and they’re decrying how oppressed the poor Irish men are.
Ya think he’d be glad to get rid of her for a few weeks!
Look like Ninjas
Truly a backward twisted faith system
Please tell me they’re in the new Fifa game
Fair play to her for speaking out
and now she will no doubt get a beating for doing so
I suppose they don’t swap burkhas after the game. Or maybe they do, they disappear into the tunnel after return for a lap of honour in the opposition’s gear. Incidentally, they have to have their husbands permission to have their photographs taken for the social services card here in Ireland.
Jho, neither “they” nor anybody else needs a spouse’s permission to have a photograph taken in Ireland.
Could consider a “no female then no male either” rule for countries that practice this type of discrimination. So, for instance the Iranian men’s team shouldn’t be allowed in the World Cup or their male athletes should be barred from the Olympics etc. of course you’d losing funding from Saudi, Qatar etc but …….
Arabs from the gulf state hate Persians(Iraq, Iran) and Arabs from the Mediterranean Coast, shur it’s them with help from the British and Americans that are destabilising the whole region. The proof is in the pudding of them not taking any refugees.
But your participation idea is a good one.
Her husband could do with a few slaps.
Well it’s easy to see who wears the trousers in that house….or maybe not !!!
Coming SOON to a park near you!
Why don’t they just stop having babies that will sort the backward men out
There is oil in Iran so they can treat women, children or even gay people as they wish.
Murica is far too busy waging wars and indeed economic wars against the real enemies of the world… Like Cuba.
The U.S. Have recently lifted their embargo with Cuba and have reestablished diplomatic contact.
No point in making a song and dance about it.
He is the boss after all.
Come to Iran for a great escape/holiday to the Bronze Age.
The girl in the red is tackling her own team-mate. Insert your own sexist /women just don’t get football joke here….
by gender equality activists does the journal mean feminists??
Islam. .. the religion of peace!!!
To be fair women were probably treated like crap in that part of the world long before Islam came about.
haha
I wonder did he get to go without her permission to cover the matches as a sports journalist!!
Where can ya get their jerseys?
Well said Anthony Kelly. South Africa was not permitted to partake in the Olympics until it sorted out its apartheid policies . By the same token, countries that discriminate against people on the basis of gender should not be permitted to partake in international or global sporting events.