To: Mr. Joseph S. Blatter, President of FIFA

To: Mr. Mohamed Bin Hammam, President of Asian Football Confederation

Discrimination against women attending football matches in Iran

As you will be aware, according to article 3 of the FIFA statutes, “discrimination of any kind against a private person or groups of people on account of gender is strictly prohibited”. FIFA members are obliged to apply this law in all competitions and any disobedience may cause suspension or expulsion.

According to Article 6 of FIFA’s Codes of Ethics, “Officials, players and players’ agents may not act in a discriminatory manner, especially with regard to ethnicity, race, culture, politics, religion, gender or language” .This applies to all those who have any official responsibility in football including members of federations’ boards of directors, coaches and referees.

However, not only has the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran prevented women from entering football stadiums without any official sanction, but government officials have also confronted women with violent actions such as seizing their equipment, assault and arrest.  Iran’s football federation authorities have not tried to stop this discrimination, and they have ignored this breach of FIFA’s Codes of Ethics.

We request that FIFA and AFC support the introduction of rules preventing gender discrimination in the statutes of Iran’s football federation, and we further request both organizations to ensure that no gender discrimination is applied to women spectators at football matches in Iran.

Sincerely