Meanwhile, in Iran:
A former member of Iran's women's football team claims she has been banned from the sport after being photographed with her hair uncovered abroad.
Shiva Amini shared photos on Instagram showing her playing friendly matches in Switzerland and Italy, competing in shorts and without Iran’s compulsory hijab veil.
“I never thought that I would one day be prevented from playing for my country because I appeared unveiled and was wearing a pair of shorts in a photo taken on a personal trip outside of Iran,” she told the My Stealthy Freedom women’s rights campaign.
“This was not even an official game. It seems that for the sports community in Iran, the veil carries greater importance than sport.
Well of course the veil carries more importance than sport. This is an Islamic theocracy. Nothing is more important than controlling women and what they wear.
Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist who runs the My Stealthy Freedom campaign from New York, described the disqualification as a “foul” that countered claims of increasing equality.
“It is shameful that the government is suffocating the hope of Iranian women day by day,” she told The Independent.
“When you talk to the officials, they often downplay the importance of the compulsory veil by saying ‘This is an unimportant issue. We have bigger issues in Iran’.
“Yet, the case of Shiva and those of many other Iranian women who have seen their dreams shattered because of the compulsory veil depict a different picture.”
In 2014 alone, government statistics showed that 3.6 million were arrested, warned or fined for their attire, Ms Alinejad said.
Ms Amini said she had been heartened by the public response to her ordeal, saying thousands of people had sent messages of support and vowing not to stay silent on the issue.
The Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran denied the claims in a statement, which said Ms Amini stopped playing for the national team for reasons unrelated to dress codes and behaviour.
But the player posted photos of herself wearing the Iranian football strip and recounted a futsal official telling her: “When you are a member of an official team, you do not have the right to play without the veil even in non-official games abroad.
“We are living in Islamic country. Why did you have to play with boys?”
Iran used to have a women's rugby team, but not any more, it seems:
http://www.scrumqueens.com/features/womens-rugby-iran-suffering
Posted by: Bob-B | April 30, 2017 at 12:25 PM