Iranian women disguise themselves in fake beards to enter male-only football match

A group of female football fans in Iran have disguised themselves in fake beards and wigs to defy a ban on female spectators entering sports stadia.

Photographs and video of the fans sitting in Tehran's Azadi Stadium disguised as men last weekend, watching their team Persepolis win the Persian Gulf Pro League, have gone viral on social media.

The Islamic Republic has long banned women from attending men's football matches and other sports fixtures, based at least partly on the theory that women should not hear fans swear.

In 2014, a British-Iranian woman was jailed for a year after trying to attend a men's volleyball match. In March this year, 35 women were detained for trying to attend a match at the same stadium.

Commenting on the women who broke the ban, Melody Safavi, Iranian women's rights activist and singer, told Reuters "I am very proud of them and impressed that they can be so fearless, because it is a huge risk that they do that.”

Safavi is a member of the Iranian reggae band Abjeez, whose song Stadium calls on Iranian men to support women in their fight to be allowed into sports fixtures.

She lives in self-imposed exile in the United States.

Shadi Amin, an Iranian women's and LGBT rights activist, added "they are trying to break a lot of lines and taboos.

"For other people it is a small step, but for us it is a big step, because the cost of this action is not small. They risk being arrested.”

The Iranian group OpenStadiums, which is campaigning for the right of women to attend sports fixtures in the Islamic Republic, said that some women were arrested near Azadi stadium in March during the Esteghlal-Persepolis match.

Saudi Arabia which previously banned women from attending sporting events, last year partially lifted a ban on women entering sporting stadia.

Image: Female football fans in disguise defy a ban on female spectators entering sports stadia. Courtesy of Instagram.

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