AFP - Iran's sole female football official, Parastou
Younchi, has resigned after the director of the Iranian football federation
said football was a male sport, an Iranian women's website said Tuesday.
"Football is a male sport and women cannot be successful in the federation,"
Mohammad Dadkan, who took over on January 18, was quoted as saying by the
womeniniran site run by pro-reform female journalists.
"After this statement, I decided to resign as I was the only woman on the
management board," said Younchi, who ran against Dadkan for the federation
presidency in January.
Football is a national passion in Iran and has many female fans, but they
can only play it in a few indoor halls where men cannot watch them, and are
barred from the stands ostensibly because of the bad language and rowdiness
of male spectators.
However sports officials have said that special sections are to be reserved
for women and families.