An explosion has already been heard in Iran. Not the nuclear kind the world is dreading. This one is softer, curvier (some makes come with an unusually short fuse) and just as loud. The bang belongs to Iranian women who will now be allowed to attend major sporting events, soccer included, ending a ban that has been held since the Islamic revolution of 1979. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said this week that women must have a chance to watch all sporting events, and must be given the best seats in the house. Speaking on state-run television, Ahmadinejad said he had ordered that women be adequately catered for during Iran s major sporting occasions. The best stands should be allocated to women and families in the stadiums in which national and important matches are being held. Ahmadinejad's climb down is huge. This is a country where women need a male guardian s permission to work or travel. Women in Iran are not allowed to become judges, and a man s court testimony is claimed to be twice as important as a woman s. Love, though, is not quite in the spring Iranian air. Women will not be able to sit with guys in stadiums. They will sit in a separate section of the stands.Iran s religious right is certainly not smitten, voicing opposition to the decision to let women have their way. Four grand Ayatollahs and several MPs have protested against the move, saying that women should not sit next to raucous men spewing forth four-letter Farsi words, and it violates Islamic law for a woman to look at the body of a male stranger (who, if wearing shorts, would really be pushing the envelope). Actually, members of the clergy say it is wrong for men and women to look at each other s bodies at all, even if they have no intention of taking pleasure from it. But Iranian sexes see each other all the time. Men and women walk on the same streets. They don't have segregated sidewalks in Tehran. And if there is lust inside them, if they're eyeballing one another up and down all the time, where then do they find the time to enrich their uranium?Lest we forget, Iranian women can attend basketball and volleyball matches even though they too involve men dressed in shorts. As for unruly behavior of bearded, beer-bellied male fans, it's very possible that chador-covered petites in the stands are just as boisterous, animated and, to put it gently, vocally opinionated. The only difference is that they might do and say things while smiling. Besides, female foreign counterparts are allowed into stadiums. In 2001, a group of Irish women was permitted to attend a World Cup qualifier match between Iran and Ireland that was held in Tehran. The presence of women and families in public places promotes chastity, Ahmadinejad said. It will improve soccer-watching manners, and promote a healthy atmosphere. It will also produce better football. All-male stadiums cannot possibly be inspiring to Iranian players. Isn't everything that is done by men, done so because a woman is watching, or at least she's in the back of his mind? Women watchers will definitely make Iranian athletes jump higher as well as run faster and be better all-around hot dogs. The move was welcomed by women s rights campaigners, who have long protested against their banishment from stadiums. The ban on women attending major matches was imposed in 1979 when the country s newly adopted Islamic code forbade women from watching men play sport. There were regular protests against the ban, but watching Iran s popular national football team remained a male-only pastime for 27 years. Ahmadinejad's was a highly populist move in a country where both sexes love football and there is growing excitement about the World Cup which Iran is going to for the third time. (In 1998, it beat the United "Great Satan States in their famed encounter) So a round of applause is in order for President Ahmadinejad (we don't see George W. Bush clapping). The relaxation of the sporting ban is the second apparent concession by Ahmadinejad in as many days. Last week, officials in Tehran launched a campaign for women to obey Iran s strict Islamic dress codes. But Ahmadinejad said the policy would not be enforced by confrontation. Has Ahmadinejad, regarded as an ultra conservative, suddenly been besotted? From where did this drive spring to help women right an imbalance? As mayor of Tehran, he tore down billboard posters of David Beckham, for fear pictures of the English superstar might be mesmerizing many of the capital's damsels. Maybe it's just the realization that there is no particular reason why women shouldn't watch sports in public. Maybe too, it is partly the acknowledgement that their presence can do well for the game also. Pele was not the only character who made Brazilian football famous. Right behind, in the stands, you always find a supporting cast of incredibly buoyant blondes.
