海角大神

The World Cup game is projected large onto the wall of the packed Tehran caf茅, 14 feet across and 9 feet high. In the late-night crowd, women and men leap out of their chairs, cheering together at every goal, and moaning in unison with every near-miss.

All the drama of the Beautiful Game is here in HD, on the caf茅 wall, and on Iranian national TV 鈥撀燼s it will be for the World Cup finals this weekend.

But if these soccer games were being played in Iran, no women would be able to go watch them in the stadiums 鈥撀爄n keeping with rules of the Islamic Republic.

鈥淲e鈥檙e very sad about that,鈥� says Shiva, a business graduate whose red lipstick matches her headscarf, during the halftime break.

鈥淢aybe they want to 鈥榩rotect鈥� women, because men become very enthusiastic and hyped up 鈥� they might do something out of their control,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the law, as every country has laws. But if they can decide to let women in, we welcome it.鈥�

Shiva鈥檚 calm response is pure diplomacy compared to that of many Iranian women who see their banning from soccer stadiums 鈥撀燼nd now volleyball arenas 鈥撀燼s part of a broader and long-standing contest between women and the Islamic Republic. Rules range from banning women from sporting events to conventions about wearing a veil, known as hijab, how much hair is permissible to see.

Many women prefer to cover up in traditional manner, yet plenty of others prefer not to be told what they can鈥檛 do, or can鈥檛 wear.聽聽

鈥淲hen they ban women [from stadiums], in fact they want to control the whole society,鈥� says one female Iranian soccer fan who asked not to be named. 鈥淲omen鈥檚 bodies have always been a tool that the Islamic Republic uses to define its level of Islamicness. But it reflects a kind of antagonism toward a big part of society.鈥�

鈥淭hey might not be allowed to go to stadiums, but no one can force [women] to change their way of [loosely] wearing hijab,鈥� says this female fan.

'Duty' at home

The resistance is obvious. In response to some official views that a woman鈥檚 鈥渄uty鈥� is at home, one graffiti image went viral on social media, of a scowling Iranian woman in a national soccer team T-shirt. She is drawn wearing rubber dishwashing gloves and holding aloft a yellow bottle of 鈥渃up鈥� washing liquid 鈥撀燼s if it were the golden World Cup trophy.

Also gone viral in recent months is a 鈥渟tealthy freedom鈥� campaign on Facebook and Twitter 鈥撀燽oth officially filtered in Iran, though most senior officials seem to have accounts. For this, Iranian women photograph themselves outside, their hair flowing freely.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently heralded Iran鈥檚 women as the backbone of society and rejected the Western concept of gender equality. He praised 鈥渟ecurity of women in the family environment鈥� and their 鈥渙pportunity in housekeeping for talents to bloom.鈥�

Those remarks on Women鈥檚 Day were in contrast to those made by centrist President Hassan Rouhani, who called for equal status for women.

Iranian women have reached high office 鈥撀燼s vice presidents and parliamentarians 鈥� and populate many professions from law to medicine, among them Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. More than half of university students are women.

Still, women volleyball fans were beaten and a number arrested outside a Tehran arena last month, and prevented from watching international matches hosted in Iran.

鈥淚n the current conditions, the mixing of men and women in stadiums is not in the public interest,鈥� Iran鈥檚 police chief said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 allow women to enter stadiums.鈥�

Several conservative female MPs criticized women who were sports fans.

鈥淲e should not be deceived by a group of women and girls that are making a slur and escalate it through the media,鈥� MP from Isfahan, Nayyereh Akhavan Bitaraf, told the Payam No website. She said the arrested fans were not true representatives of Iranian women.

One MP from Tehran, Fatemeh Alia, said: 鈥淲omen鈥檚 job is taking care of their children and husband, not watching volleyball matches.鈥�

The comments provoked a social media firestorm, which included creation of a page for Ms. Alia, asking her to leave her job in parliament and return to her 鈥渕ain duty鈥� at home.

The volleyball ban also prompted a letter from 130 female activists to the president of the International Volleyball Federation.

鈥淲e demand an end to gender discrimination in the sports stadiums and believe that the Iranian society is not an island isolated from the rest of the planet,鈥� the letter read.

'Lost cause'?

At local soccer games, Iranian fans describe crude and obscene chants directed by men at the referees and players. But that did not stop women from campaigning for years to attend.

At the caf茅 showing the World Cup games, Shiva鈥檚 boyfriend Reza says that a section of the stands should be reserved for women only.

But he noted that even when former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 鈥� at the peak of his populist powers 鈥撀爐ried to open the stadium gates to women, the effort failed. Mr. Ahmadinejad argued that women and families brought 鈥渕orality鈥� and 鈥渃hastity鈥� to public venues, but he was slammed by conservative clerics.

鈥淢aybe it鈥檚 one of the last pillars of the traditional interpretation of Islam 鈥� and they are holding onto it with all their might, they won鈥檛 let go,鈥� says a veteran Iranian cultural observer who asked not to be named.

He says: 鈥淲hy do they invest so much in a kind of lost cause, when you can look at this younger generation, and see what they want?鈥�