One of Iran’s best female soccer players will miss a major tournament because her husband is refusing to give her permission to travel.
Niloufar Ardalan is known as ‘Lady Goal’ in Iran for her amazing skills, but under Iranian law, she can’t travel to international competition without her husband’s consent.
She was due to captain the Iranian team at the Asian Football Confederation’s women’s futsball (or indoor) championship in Malaysia on September 21.
“In Iran, however, married women need the consent of their husbands to leave the country and can be banned from travelling abroad if their spouses do not sign the paperwork needed to obtain or renew a passport,” the report says.
“Ardalan says her husband, a sports journalist and television presenter, has used this authority to prevent her from competing in the upcoming tournament because he does not want her to miss the first day of school for her 7-year-old son on September 23.
“The frustrated soccer star says she had trained hard for weeks to compete in the games and make her country proud.
“But my husband didn’t give me my passport so that I can [participate] in the games, and because of his opposition to my travel abroad, I [will] miss the matches,” Ardalan said in a September 11 interview with the news site Nasimonline.ir.”
She has protested on Instagram, saying: “I wish a law would be approved that allows female soldiers to fight for raising the flag” (meaning she would like to play.)
“This just shows to what extent this law can impact a woman’s life,” Iranian women’s rights advocate Shadi Sadr told Radio Free Europe.
“Even if a woman reaches the highest ranks in politics, sports, or culture, she still needs her husband’s consent for one of her most basic rights—travelling abroad.”
Ardalan has backed down from some of her criticism of the law since the story made international news, but AP reports that she had already told Iranian news: “I wish authorities would create [measures] that would allow female athletes to defend their rights in such situations.”
