Boston College's Iranian Writer on FIFA's Ban on Headscarves
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Before Shahryar Mandanipour left Iran in 2006 to become writer in residence first at Brown University, then Harvard, and now Boston College, before there were attempts to assassinate him in his native Iran, before his writing was banned, he was blackballed, and his literary magazine shut down by the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Guidance - before all that, Mandanipour was the captain of the football team at the University of Tehran. The game was the center of his life.
One of the recollections he has shared with me from that time was of sneaking his girlfriend into a stadium to watch one of his games. For both, the repercussions for being caught would have been expulsion, imprisonment, or worse. She was so happy. She had never seen a real soccer game before because since the 1979 Revolution, women in Iran are not allowed to enter stadiums and watch the games.
The recent FIFA decision to uphold its ban on headscarves in the case of the Iranian girls’ team in the Youth Olympics this August resonates with Mandanipour. Iranian officials had asked FIFA to reconsider the ban, otherwise they would not permit the girls the play. FIFA decided against them, ruling that it was a violation of Section 8 of the international rulebook which regulates on-field attire, and invited Thailand to participate in Singapore in place of Iran. Iranian officials have now requested FIFA to reconsider their decision.
fifa ban on headscarves iran hajib youth olympics shahyrar mandanipour
Iranian women protesters
“Yes, FIFA made this decision,” Mandanipour told me on Wednesday. “Today I learnt that persons who charged in Football Federation have known it three months ago and they didn't announce it. I am not sure but might be a good decision, because participating with Islamic Hijab in such events, somehow is humiliating to Iranian women. Iranian women are fighting bravely for their rights and I am sure they will win someday.”
Mandanipour left Iran for the United States in 2006 and is the author of 12 books, most recently the acclaimed Censoring an Iranian Love Story. Wednesday, April 14, Mandanipour will speak at the Visiting Writers Series at Harvard University. The event is free and open to the public.
posted @ 9:02 AM,
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