close button
Switch to Iranwire Light?
It looks like you’re having trouble loading the content on this page. Switch to Iranwire Light instead.
Women

Iran's First International Female Football Referee Barred from World Cup

July 29, 2022
IranWire
1 min read
Mahsa Ghorbani, Iran's first female international football referee, was excluded from participating in the World Cup because she did not observe the Islamic hijab
Mahsa Ghorbani, Iran's first female international football referee, was excluded from participating in the World Cup because she did not observe the Islamic hijab

Sardar Pashaei, a former world wrestling champion and coach of Iran’s national wrestling teams, protested yesterday against the removal of Mahsa Ghorbani, Iran’s first female international football referee, from participating in the 2022 World Cup by publishing a photo of her on Twitter.

Mr. Pashaei wrote in his tweet: "Mahsa Ghorbani, Iran's first female international football referee, was excluded from participating in the World Cup because she did not observe the Islamic hijab and because her legs were a little exposed. Officials of the Iranian Football Federation took exception to this and decided to remove her [from the tournament].”

Neither the Iranian Football Federation nor Ghorbani have reacted publicly to the news. The status of female referees in Iran's women's football and futsal federations is caught up in managerial, financial and gender discrimination and affected by corruption within the Iranian Football Federation.

Iran’s female referees have previously encountered problems with mandatory hijab, financial issues, and have protested many times against this discrimination and other problems such as the low salaries for female referees. But in response the Iranian Football Federation has repeatedly threatened several of them, such as Mahsa Ghorbani, with removal from the referee rosters if their protests continued.

comments

Politics

Khamenei's Latest Antisemitic Twitter Rant Prompts US Special Envoy to Call for Ban

July 29, 2022
IranWire
1 min read
Khamenei's Latest Antisemitic Twitter Rant Prompts US Special Envoy to Call for Ban