Farsical: Iranian footballers can’t revel in female support

Female fans may later use these photos for political ransom against our country, says Ali Akbar Mohamedzade

Iranian footballers have received threats of punishment in their home country if they are seen posing for ‘selfies’ along with female fans during their Asia Cup matches, reported Al-Arabiya News.

“Players are not allowed to pose for selfies with female fans,” said Ali Akbar Mohamedzade, head of the Iranian Football Federation’s disciplinary committee. He issued a warning to players, reasoning that women “may later use these photos for political ransom against our country or sue the players for harassment.”

Although he did not specify the measures the committee would take if the players fail to comply with the notification, but noted that the board would be left “with no option but to deal with them.” The development surfaces in the wake of media coverage of tank top-clad women holding the Iranian flag, the central white strip of which read the question, “Will Alireza marry me?” Alireza Haghighi is the goalkeeper of the Iranian football team.

Although these images of “inappropriately dressed” women were censored in Iran, they were deemed antithetical to Iran’s ‘moral principles’. “In some of the selfies that our players have taken with the fans, we can see they appear next to people whose appearance we regard as being against our moral principles,” said Mohamedzade. “I have, therefore, had to contact the national coach and question him about this issue. He has explicitly denied having agreed to posting of such selfies on social networks,” he added.

The Iranian football team is currently participating in the Asian Cup finals with their games being attended by thousands of Australia’s expatriate Iranian community. Football is one of the closely-followed sports in the country and the sex segregation rules, which prevent women from being part of the audience for men’s games, do not apply abroad, reported The Telegraph.

Iran’s 1-0 win against Qatar secured them a place in the quarterfinals and has also made them one of the favourites to reach the finals of the Asian Cup. Iran’s national broadcasting organisation, the IRIB, has been criticised for censoring images of exiled dissidents, who were part of the crowd and were seen holding flags of imperial Iran, or banners protesting the Iranian regime’s human rights records and its restrictive measures against women in sports.