One brave woman's noble cause

One Iranian woman travelled to Australia not only to support her nation in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup but to raise awareness for a campaign much closer to her heart, the right to watch live matches in her home country.

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Iraq and Iran in action during the 2015 Asian Cup. (Getty) Source: Getty Images

The tug of emotion and the sharp flash of memory are almost always greater keepsakes than any kind of physical memento.

While it's much easier to measure the 'legacy' of the recent Asian Cup in material terms - through the likes of covered benches - by far the most pressing benefaction is in the joy of having lived something, having experienced something.

For many of those who were here in January, it's the memory of a pass, a goal or a shared moment of exhilaration at a result but for others it was simply the act of being there in the first place.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the case of the large number of Iranian women who flocked to venues in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra to support Team Melli.

The same women who, had the tournament been held in their homeland, would have had to watch on television due to a longstanding ban on female fans at football stadia in Iran.

One of those was Maryam, who travelled from abroad to attend the Asian Cup in support of Iran, and to expose a campaign she's running called 'My Fundamental Right.'

It's a push to allow Iranian women the basic right to attend football matches in her homeland – something which has been forbidden for most of the post-1979 revolution years.

I met Maryam in Sydney at the conclusion of the Asian Cup and to hear her story is to immediately realise the deep injustice of a government policy aimed at ensuring 'security.'

"We're trying simply to get basic rights for women," she said. "There are campaigns but what we're saying is that even in this society with this government, women should be allowed to go to football stadiums.

"This has nothing to do with Islam because there is nothing written about women not being allowed to go to the stadiums and even in other countries like Afghanistan people are allowed to go.

"I asked several clerics about whether women's presence is against Islam and they said no, that's not a law, it's a rule – and that has to be changed."

In a move to raise further awareness for the campaign Maryam travelled to Australia with a banner that she carried from venue to venue, which proclaimed simply, 'Support Iranian Women to Attend Stadiums' – and hundreds of people approached her to pledge their support and be photographed holding the banner.
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"I'm not the first to push these issues, many Iranian women have been doing it and many of them have been evicted because they tried to get into the stadiums," she added.

"It's the least thing I can do to promote the campaign so why should I shut my mouth and say nothing."

Alongside the wider campaign was a personal milestone for Maryam as she was able to attend her first match watching Team Melli.

The fact it was against Iraq was even more of a stirring moment.

"I was born in a small town in the south of Iran, very close to the border with Iraq and I was just five years old when the war happened," she explained.

"On the first day our house was destroyed, thankfully we weren't at home, but everyone had to leave the city.

"So growing up as an Iranian kid I always had nightmares about Iraqis and I considered them as monsters because my cousin, my dearest cousin, and my uncle were killed during the war and my father served the army during the war and I always carried the fear of his death.

"I had flashbacks from those days when I was a kid and then I went inside and it was a very intense match and we deserved to win, you know, the referee ... you know!

"But afterwards both Iranians and Iraqis we were standing close to each other and chanting like brothers and sisters and I thought about the whole day that I was afraid of them and the childhood that was destroyed.

"Perhaps there were Iraqis at the match who had the same feelings as I had and yet they stayed together for more than two hours and had a good relationship.

"If the stadium is safe enough for Iranians and Iraqis to stay together, it's safe enough for Iranian women to go inside Iran.

"The Iran/Iraq game was really intense. As you know, one of our players was out of the game and we had to perform with 10 players.

"We believed that we deserved to have won the game, and were very disappointed by the result.

"But after sometime I thought it was ok if that gave a reason for Iraqi children, who haven't experienced anything but war and violence for a long time, to be happy for a few hours."

Growing up – as many young women Iranian do – as an avid football fan, Maryam still dreams of the day that she is able to walk into a stadium in Iran, pick up a banner, perhaps paint her face and watch, sing and support.

"When change will come is unpredictable because we are an unpredictable nation but during the past years we've seen Iranian women achieve so much," she said.

"It's ironic that the first female space tourist was an Iranian woman; we also have another Iranian woman who won the Nobel peace prize, yet we're still are not able to go to stadiums.

"Talking about these things is a sign of progress because it was taboo before that, now people are getting the idea that this is the basic right.

"Imagine you wake up one day and the government tells you, for example, that men in Australia are not allowed to go to, say, the cinema or theatres – what would you feel?"

"It's clearly ridiculous."


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6 min read
Published 20 February 2015 4:38pm
Updated 20 February 2015 6:47pm
By Scott McIntyre

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