Iranian women soccer fans allowed into stadium

STORY: Women flocked to the Azadi stadium, draped in the red of their team, Persepolis F. C, blowing vuvuzela horns ahead of the game against Sanat-e-Naft Abadan.

”It is great that we women are allowed to enter Azadi Stadium," said soccer fan Nazanin.

Under pressure from world soccer’s governing body FIFA and women’s rights campaigners, in October 2019, Iranian authorities allowed about 4,000 women into 100,000-seat Azadi Stadium for an international match against Cambodia, for the first time in decades.

Women have been banned from watching men’s games in Iran since the 1979 revolution with only a few exceptions made for small groups on rare occasions.