"Discrimination in Sports is not Acceptable"

Many volleyball fans in Iran will be celebrating this week after the president of the Iranian volleyball federation, Mohammad Reza Davarzani, announced that Iran would host the 2015 Asian men’s volleyball tournament. But the news will be less welcome for human rights activists around the world and Iranian female volleyball fans, who have been banned from watching live volleyball matches since 2012.

Although the International Federation for Volleyball (FIVB) banned Iran from hosting international tournaments until women were permitted to attend live matches, the Asian Volleyball Federation (AVC) continues to allow Iran to host international championships, including the Asian men’s tournament next year. Is the FIVB, as the highest volleyball authority, able to stop the AVC from allowing Iran to host international tournaments? Or is the AVC a separate organization that makes its own decisions? With activists like Ghoncheh Ghavami being arrested for attempting to watch a volleyball match in Tehran, the decisions of the FIVB and the AVC have far-reaching implications.

IranWire spoke to Minky Worden, the Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch (HRW) about the importance of human rights in big sporting events and how campaigning can bring about change.

What is your role at HRW and how is it related to sport?

I’m the director of global initiatives but, among other things, I’ve focused on global campaigns for HRW. I oversaw our 2008 Olympics campaign in Beijing, our campaign for non-discrimination against women and girls in sport during the 2012 London Olympics and worked on our Sochi campaign. All of that has documented how human rights are central to major sporting events, especially in countries that have a weak human rights record. If you award a major sporting event to a country that has a bad record — take migrant labour for instance —you can fully expect that the stadiums are built on migrant labor. At HRW, we’ve focused a lot on discrimination against women and girls in sport, doing a lot on Saudi Arabia, but also on Iran, for many decades. We focused on Ghoncheh Ghavami’s arrest and wrote to the FIVB about it, given that it’s fair to say it is the “high priest of the volleyball church.” In Iran, it’s a question of whether women and girls are allowed to watch the games, which is very in line with whether girls are allowed to take part in sport meaningfully and in society as a whole.

What is the FIVB’s position on Iran being chosen to host the 2015 Asian Men’s volleyball championship?

We have specifically taken this question to the FIVB. Iran as a nation has very talented volleyball players and the government, including its hardliners, like to cheer their players on. But so do Iranian women so it’s inconsistent with international human rights norms and international sporting norms. Iran is going to have to address these very soon because it’s clear Iran will not be welcome to host international sporting events as long as women are not allowed as spectators. This is a regulation that has really been in place since 2012 and follows on from the long-standing ban on women being allowed to watch football matches, but it’s an anomaly. HRW has requested that the FIVB, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and others communicate that this is inconsistent with international tournaments and that if the policy stays in place, there will be a price to play. This price may be that Iran is unable to host international tournaments. For this reason, HRW is writing to the FIVB to say that women should be allowed to watch these matches and if not, that the AVC should withdraw its tournament in Iran.

We wrote a private letter to the FIVB in the fall to ask them to take a stand on non-discrimination because volleyball is part of the Olympic family. This means the FIVB and the AVC are required to subscribe to the international Olympic charter, the foundational document for sport. The document says, “Discrimination is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement.” Now, given that the FIVB and the AVC belong to the Olympic movement, and presuming they want to remain in it, it’s very important they uphold this core principle. In Monaco next week, on December 7 and 8, the IOC is hosting its “Agenda 2020” and the new IOC president has set out in very clear terms that discrimination will not be tolerated. For the first time, non-discriminatory clauses are also being introduced into host contracts and HRW lobbied for this. It will have implications for Saudi Arabia and Iran and is important for sport both generally in terms of saying discrimination will not be tolerated but also that discrimination against women as spectators is not acceptable. 

Has the FIVB responded to your letter?

The FIVB responded that the AVC is not under its umbrella, saying, “several world league matches, which have already been confirmed, will be taking place in Iran, but that there are no directly controlled FIVB events scheduled to take place in Iran. The AVC championship will also take place in Iran in 2015 — a competition awarded to Iran by the AVC. And, at no time, was Iran told that it would host the junior championship.”

Having said that, even if it technically doesn’t fall under the FIVB umbrella, the FIVB is the parent organisation for all volleyball federations and it’s in a very privileged position to strongly communicate to the AVC and the Iranian government that women must be allowed as spectators.

In November, the head of the FIVB made a very straightforward speech in defence of non-discrimination at the world congress for volleyball, which was an important step. The FIVB has also told HRW that it is evaluating the current situation and it should therefore get credit for communicating to the Iranian government that these are unacceptable actions. HRW is also writing to the AVC and is in touch with the FIVB because bail, and not freedom, for Ghoncheh Ghavami is not good enough — we want all charges dropped. Our position is that the 2012 regulation should be repealed so that women are allowed to take part in volleyball in a meaningful way in Iran. Until that happens we believe that Iran will find it very hard to host international tournaments. The AVC may continue to allow Iran but it will find it receives a lot of unwanted attention.

Is the FIVB pressurising the AVC to cancel its tournament?

That should be a question for the FIVB. Certainly HRW has said there should be no international tournament so long as women are not allowed to watch. The IOC has also been in touch with the Iranian government about this. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes but the government took the decision to arrest Ghavami and to send a signal that women aren’t allowed to watch volleyball. This was a decision that lead to the current crisis. And as a result, it’s very clear that the international sporting federations have been on the spot. This is an important moment to gain clarity on the issue and explains why HRW is following up on the question of women being allowed to watch volleyball with the AVC, the FIVB, the IOC and the International Football Federation (FIFA). FIFA in its own way is responsible for this because it allowed the ban on women attending soccer matches to stand for so long. That again is inconsistent with international sporting law.

How important is it for international bodies like the FVB to play a part in human rights campaigns? Does it help bring about decisive change? 

It’s absolutely essential. Just today an international coalition of human rights organizations announced, which includes HRW, Amnesty international, FIFPro, Transparency International and others, will look into these issues. The fact there’s this new global coalition to advocate for human rights in mega sporting events shows we’ve reached a point where this kind of discrimination is not accepted. The Iranian government needs to decide whether or not it wants to host international tournaments. The FIVB was blind-sided by Iran's discriminatory policies, actions and the arrest and sentence for Ghavami, but it has taken responsible steps to address and clarify its position on inclusivity and non-discrimination. The ball is now in Iran's court.