Only since last year have the best Iranian soccer players been allowed to train in Tehran’s Adazi sports complex. But not all of their wishes are fulfilled.
Photo: imago images / Maryam Majd
Maybe this time it doesn’t really matter how the very first game at the Women’s Asia Cup ends. When the Indian footballers play as hosts on Thursday in Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium, which is usually used for cricket, it is first of all remarkable who they open this tournament, which is under the sovereignty of the Asian Football Confederation AFC: the Iranian women’s national team, which is qualified for the first time – in an impressive mixture of defiance and bravery.
The greatest resistance to this team is still in their own country, where the regime curtails women’s rights and the sanctions of the USA at the same time make those young parts of the population who are actually hoping for an opening to the West despair. Iran had temporarily disappeared from the world rankings for women’s football because official activities down to club level had come to a standstill. But because the world association Fifa insists on progress and the promotion of women’s football, the national football association FFI had to move, especially since football in Iran is also very popular with women and girls. To the displeasure of the arch-conservative clergy, who rigorously banned women from visiting football stadiums for decades, citing the strict Islamist rules in the country.
Maryam Irandoost woke the national team from its slumber last year. In her second stint as national team coach, she enlisted the support of Shohreh Mousavi, who, as vice-president of the Football Association of Iran, wields influence because she is a member of the AFC Women’s Commission.
The 42-year-old Irandoost, who is also well connected internationally, cleared many blockades in a few months, bought equipment, screened the players and got them accommodated in Tehran’s Adazi sports complex in preparation for the first friendlies. The activist even threatened to resign when the association refused to pay salaries for her staff.
The only thing she couldn’t get through was the suggestion that her father Nosrat Irandoost, a former player and experienced club manager, be hired as technical director for the women’s national team. The Iranian Ministry of Sports and Youth banned his presence on the grounds that he could not watch the veiled athletes up close. There were also no preparatory games for the Asian Cup because the association leaders thought that the brave pioneers in cleated shoes had already received enough attention. In fact, the popularity ratings of female soccer players have increased enormously. Most of them come from the lower social classes and very remote villages. Their families are now immensely proud of them.
The Iranians are going into a tournament as blatant outsiders, in which five fixed Asian qualifiers and two more playoff places for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will be played out until February 6th. With the increase from 24 to 32 finalists, not only nations with established structures such as Japan, China or South Korea should take part in the World Cup. Nevertheless, the door for the qualitatively inferior team of Iran is probably still closed. But even so there is a lot to gain, above all more appreciation and respect.
Ironically, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, son of the late King Hussein of Jordan and president of the Jordanian Football Association (JFA), raised awareness of Iranian women’s footballers when he made a complaint to the AFC after the preliminary round that caused a stir. The Jordanian prince has called for a “gender check” on Iranian goalkeeper Zohreh Koudaei after she made several saves in a 4-2 penalty shootout win over Jordan. He also tweeted that Iranian football had “a history of gender and doping problems.” This made the case politically explosive.
Coach Irandoost immediately rejected the allegations against the Iranian media. “The medical staff carefully examined every player on the national team for hormones.” Her team received an unexpected wave of support from home – male fans in particular suddenly turned the goalkeeper into the “brave and beautiful girl” of Iranian football. Images from her father’s house were also shown, showing her mother praying and then crying with joy as her daughter saved the Jordanian penalty. As a school child, Koudaei herself said, she worked hard as a carpenter. »I come from a family where I had to work early to make a living.«
The freelance photographer Maryam Majd, who has built up a close relationship with the players over the years, affirms: “All medical evidence and examinations have shown that she is a woman. That’s the truth that the whole world should know.« Incidentally, the 34-year-old scraped together her savings to be the only accredited photographer from Iran at the Women’s Asia Cup 2022, when the tireless fight for recognition not only for their compatriots in India to the next round.
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