What’s it Like to Play Professional Football as a Woman in Iran?

In Iran, the idea of women playing or watching football was put to an end by the Islamic revolution of 1979. It is not until recently that women have been allowed to participate in the game in any way. A lot of focus is now on the Iranian government’s decisions to allow women to attend men’s football games. Although this can be seen as a small victory for Iranian women, a bigger win has come in the form of women being allowed to play football professionally.

Achievements

The Iranian women’s football team has already qualified for the Olympics, having done so in 2018. The same team also emerged top of its group in the qualifiers for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) championship.

The achievements did not stop there as the women’s under-16 team qualified for the second round of the same tournament, The tournament was played in 2019 in Tajikistan, with the under-16s able to participate as they qualified in November of the previous year.

Much of the credit goes to FIFA as a lot of Iranians appreciate their efforts in transforming Iranian Women’s soccer.

Home Teams

There are a lot of teams now participating in the country’s women's football league. Although football is dominated by men in Iran as it is in most other places around the world. The women’s teams participating in the league have been able to stand out and carve a space in the sport.

Teams that had been scrapped, like Malavan Football Club, are now back on the pitch, with its young female players appreciating the reinstatement of the team. This team in particular has had a lot of problems, with its owner being accused of being sexist in 2016. This was after he effectively said that he had a lot of things on his plate and that the women’s team was no longer a priority.

Back to Action

Malavan women's team eventually returned with a new owner, Maryam Irandoost. She is a former professional football player who was captain of the team before it was disbanded in 2016.

In 2018, she told Al Jazeera that she was happy that the team was able to overcome all of its challenges, with the inability to take to the pitch to play the game she loves feeling like being trapped in an inescapable prison.

Now the team has 25 players, some in school and some who attend daily training sessions. Irandoost says that the ladies on the team love the game and are committed to it as much as the men are and all everyone wants to do is to win massive prizes. At the time, she said that she aimed to turn the overwhelming optimism into trophies.

Playing professional football in Iran as a woman was impossible for a very long time and it is great to see the government lifting some of the restrictions that keep women off the pitch. The only thing to do is wait to see what the Iran women’s teams can achieve.