League organisation bans men from attending women's football matches

The football league organisation has announced in a letter to clubs that from now on the presence of men at women's football matches is banned. The ban, which became public on Sunday 18 October 2026, does not cover only spectators: male reporters, photographers and camera operators, and even male club managers, are barred from entering the stadium on women's match days.

According to what has been published of the letter, the decision was taken by higher authorities and the league organisation is merely obliged to implement it. The letter did not specify whether male coaches and technical staff of the teams are also covered by the ban, and the league organisation has so far given no explanation of how matches will be covered by the media once male reporters and photographers are excluded.

Women's football under pressure from new restrictions

For years women's football in Iran has struggled with a lack of spectators, a meagre budget and media neglect, and the live broadcast of some matches in recent months was one of the few steps towards making women players visible. By closing the doors to a large share of sports photographers and reporters, the new ban threatens even this little visibility.

The decision follows the new gender-based restrictions that bodies of the Islamic Republic have announced in recent months. A few days ago the Assembly of Experts called for decisive enforcement of the compulsory hijab law, and the segregation of women and men has now reached women's football stadiums too.

Gender discrimination in stadiums

Since the first years after 1979 the Islamic Republic has also restricted or banned women's presence at men's football stadiums, and only under pressure from FIFA, and after the death of Sahar Khodayari in 2019, did it yield to a limited presence of women at some national matches. Now this segregation is being applied in the opposite direction too, and its cost is paid first of all by women athletes themselves, who, by being seen less, also lose sponsors and professional opportunities.

The ban on male reporters and photographers deprives Iran's women's football even of its meagre media coverage.