Responding to extraordinarily high demand for tickets from women soccer fans, Iranian authorities have increased the allocation of seats for women at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium for the coming match between Iran and Cambodia scheduled for October 10, 2019.
The face-off in the qualifying round for the 2022 Qatar World Cup has attracted international attention as the world football body FIFA’s order to lift the 40-year ban on Iranian women watching men’s competitions will be put to the test.
Despite opposition from some senior officials and religious conservatives, Iranian athletic authorities have pledged to honor FIFA’s demand, after intense domestic and international pressure to lift the ban increased following the death of Sahar Khodayari on September 10, 2019. A few days earlier she had set herself on fire outside a courthouse in Tehran where she was facing prosecution for trying to enter Azadi Stadium disguised as a man to avoid the ban on women.
