Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is coming under heavy fire at home
and it's not because of the worsening international standoff over the Islamic
republic's nuclear programme.
Last week the president revealed his seldom-seen softer side by ordering an end
to a decades-old ban on women entering stadiums for major sporting events,
including football matches.
But this directive has not gone down well among religious right-wingers eager
to maintain the male-female segregation ushered in by Iran's 1979 Islamic
revolution. Furthermore, some members of Iran's left are also sceptical.
"It would have been better if you had avoided a hasty announcement and
consulted," fumed the hardline Jomhuri Eslami newspaper, which usually praises
Ahmadinejad as a champion of revolutionary values.
Allowing the fairer sex into stadiums has "emboldened those loose elements that
cruise streets and parks of Tehran", it said, evoking fears that Islamic Iran
may experience some kind of 'Summer of Love'.
Ahmadinejad announced a week ago that despite reservations, "experience has
proven that when women and families are allowed into stadiums, ethics and
chastity will prevail".
But the hardline Kayhan newspaper was also working up a sweat. It voiced
astonishment that the austere president could even think of letting women into
such an "awfully unethical and corrupt environment".
A string of far-right MPs have been warning of "bare legs" and obscenities
shouted at referees, while powerful right-wing Shiite clerics have also started
a pitch invasion.
Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, considered to be Ahmadinejad's
ideological godfather, has filed a complaint from his office in Qom, the
clerical nerve-centre just south of Tehran.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fazel-Lankarani, another Qom-based Shiite cleric with
clout, has also ruled that "women looking at male bodies, even without
enjoyment, is not permissible".
"When everyone can easily watch a match live at home, what's the necessity of
having women and families in stadiums?" chimed in another grand ayatollah,
Nasser Makarem-Shirazi.
And Ayatollah Mirza-Javad Tabrizi has also raised the red card over the
"gathering of men and women for corruption-driven actions and the committing of
harams (actions forbidden by Islam)." But Ahmadinejad is sticking by his guns.
"Any distinction between men and women that leads to their separation hurts
women. In places where women are present, the atmosphere is healthier," he was
quoted as saying in Saturday's press. And in comments that could easily come
from the mouth of a feminist, he argued "sadly, when we speak of corruption the
finger is pointed at women. Are men without reproach?" "Some people think that
women are the cause of corruption, but they are wrong," said the president, who
is not known to back down.
Iran's Physical Education Organisation has meanwhile sought to calm tensions by
asserting the directive will take time to implement, given the need for special
seating arrangements and women's toilets.
It has also asserted that single ladies would remain excluded from stadiums.
Ahmadinejad's ruling was initially greeted with surprise and relief from
women's rights activists, who have for years been campaigning for access to
football matches given that both sexes in the Islamic republic share an intense
passion for the beautiful game.
But some left-wingers remain cynical, arguing the directive was more of a
propaganda exercise that will never be put into practice. "This is like a
beautiful gift wrapped package that is empty inside," pro-reform journalist Isa
Saharkhiz said.
"Ahmadinejad wanted to soften the atmosphere ... to earn popularity. But he
cannot deliver on this promise and he has to back down. He may not openly back
off, so there will be glitches so the decision is not implemented, and people
will gradually forget," he predicted.
Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh, a feminist activist, is also cynical. "Ahmadinejad is
playing the good cop," she said, arguing that the president needed to drum up
support at home while he defied UN Security Council demands that Iran freeze
its disputed nuclear programme. "The government is being very calculating, with
the president suddenly coming up with such a decision at the same time as the
problems with the Security Council," she said.
AFP
