[.eXe]

Couple days old but here it is: http://english.alarabiya.net/article...11/219928.html

Their justification for this is quite laughable. here goes: “Men, while watching football, get excited and sometimes utter vulgar curses or tell dirty jokes.” “It is not within the dignity of women to watch football with men. Women should thank the police.”

It's ridiculous that they think that men telling vulgar jokes is not the problem

[Democracy]

(Original post by .eXe)
Couple days old but here it is: http://english.alarabiya.net/article...11/219928.html

Their justification for this is quite laughable. here goes: “Men, while watching football, get excited and sometimes utter vulgar curses or tell dirty jokes.” “It is not within the dignity of women to watch football with men. Women should thank the police.”

It's ridiculous that they think that men telling vulgar jokes is not the problem

To put this into perspective for the uninitiated, here's a girl's football team in Iran in the 1970s, before fanatical clerics hijacked the country:

Spoiler:

Show

There have been a million stupid laws like this since 1979 in Iran. Obviously this particular one restricts women's rights, but men have it bad too with the regime harrassing them over their hairstyles. This is just a symptom of the larger problem, said problem being a total lack of freedom in Iran, whether over dress, football, politics, the media or whatever else.

[Tycho]

Most of the laws in countries like Iran are barbaric. The establishment there are a bunch of thuggish animals.

[.eXe]

What I don't understand is how the people in the country allow this.

To my understanding, most Iranians are progressive. Yet they continue to allow ultra-conservative idiots to run their country and come up with gibberish laws like this.

Democracy I know you're Iranian; would you say this is a politically, religiously or culturally motivated issue?

[Pitt1988]

I think it's just cos the blokes will be getting pissed off explaining the offside rule! Great, forward thinking country, Iran...

[Politricks]

(Original post by .eXe)
What I don't understand is how the people in the country allow this.

To my understanding, most Iranians are progressive. Yet they continue to allow ultra-conservative idiots to run their country and come up with gibberish laws like this.

Democracy I know you're Iranian; would you say this is a politically, religiously or culturally motivated issue?

It's religious, their politics are motivated by religion. Also, Islam has been embedded within the culture of Iran, so one could also argue it's partly cultural.

edit: however, before the revolution, the culture was relatively more liberal and 'Westernised', so Islam wasn't always a big part of Iranian life.

[zara55]

(Original post by .eXe)
“Men, while watching football, get excited and sometimes utter vulgar curses or tell dirty jokes.”

I get a lot of this in Edinburgh.

[Pitt1988]

(Original post by zara55)
I get a lot of this in Edinburgh.

While cursing missed chances by any team playing against England?

[DeathByBSOD]

(Original post by Politricks)
It's religious, their politics are motivated by religion. Also, Islam has been embedded within the culture of Iran, so one could also argue it's partly cultural.

edit: however, before the revolution, the culture was relatively more liberal and 'Westernised', so Islam wasn't always a big part of Iranian life.

First poster here that blames religion on what a country has done.
Bravo man, Bravo.

[zara55]

(Original post by Pitt1988)
While cursing missed chances by any team playing against England?

LOL, it depends which bar/pub you go to. On campus there are quite a few students from dear old England, so the atmosphere is a bit variable. Some Scots seem to do that thing of switching to whichever UK team made it through though.

[Politricks]

(Original post by DeathByBSOD)
First poster here that blames religion on what a country has done.
Bravo man, Bravo.

So religion has absolutely nothing to do with this?
This gender segregation has nothing to do with Islam? Not even the slightest pinch?

[minimarshmallow]

(Original post by Pitt1988)
I think it's just cos the blokes will be getting pissed off explaining the offside rule! Great, forward thinking country, Iran...

I'm female and I know the offside rule.
A barman once gave me a free drink because I could explain it in less than 100 words and without using props

On topic, this is stupid. I've heard a great deal of vulgar jokes coming from women watching football and I've watched football with men who never made any jokes or anything, so it makes no practical sense even before you get into the oppression of women...

Actually, can they watch it in female only screenings? Because before now I've preferred to watch football away from my male friends because they're annoying!
I can understand separating men and women for some things, like we do in Britian - toilets, changing rooms etc. but some things are just too far.

[Play-A-Record!]

My mum is now considering moving to Iran...

[Democracy]

(Original post by .eXe)
What I don't understand is how the people in the country allow this.

To my understanding, most Iranians are progressive. Yet they continue to allow ultra-conservative idiots to run their country and come up with gibberish laws like this.

Democracy I know you're Iranian; would you say this is a politically, religiously or culturally motivated issue?

I would say this is a fascism issue so yes, political. The regime makes life difficult for everyone: men, women, Muslims, non-Muslims, whatever.

You* cannot blame Iranians for what is going on, they are the victims here just as much as people in Burma, Syria, Sudan etc are the victims of their undemocratic regimes. When democracy doesn't exist in a country and a select oligarchy (clerics, the military, whatever) rule by fear and brutality, the people are powerless to make changes easily.

As for how and why this system came to be, it's very simple: the people kicked out one dictator (the Shah) in 1979 only for him to be replaced for a far worse series of dictators (the current clerics). It is not an uncommon thing to happen after a revolution, especially a revolution which was fought for freedom and democracy, ironically enough!

So yes, you're right, most people in Iran hate these kind of laws, but changing them in a system with no political freedom, no freedom of expression, media etc is extremely difficult.

*(not meaning you personally here)

(Original post by Politricks)
It's religious, their politics are motivated by religion. Also, Islam has been embedded within the culture of Iran, so one could also argue it's partly cultural.

edit: however, before the revolution, the culture was relatively more liberal and 'Westernised', so Islam wasn't always a big part of Iranian life.

It has naff all to do with culture, don't equate those antiquated clerics and their awful rules with Iranian culture. The entire culture of a country does not change within 30 years, so your point is nonsense. If you don't know, don't talk.

[OSharp]

Im still waiting for a country to ban football for men so i can move there.

(Brace yourselves negative rep is coming)

[internetguru]

(Original post by OSharp)
Im still waiting for a country to ban football for men so i can move there.

(Brace yourselves negative rep is coming)

There is a country like that it is called the USA although it is more of a social shun than a ban.

[OSharp]

(Original post by internetguru)
There is a country like that it is called the USA although it is more of a social shun than a ban.

they play hand egg, that's even worse.

[Politricks]

(Original post by Democracy)
It has naff all to do with culture, don't equate those antiquated clerics and their awful rules with Iranian culture. The entire culture of a country does not change within 30 years, so your point is nonsense. If you don't know, don't talk.

Cultural changes in countries can, and have, happened in short periods of time, there's absolutely nothing nonsense about that, so don't call it nonsense.

Is the 'Islamic culture' prevalent among everybody in Iran? No, of course not, which is why I said 'partly'. Look at the cultural revolution that took place in Britain during the 1960s, was everybody, particularly the older generation, influenced by drugs, rock music and promiscuity?

Are you saying that Shia Islam isn't a part of Iranian life?

[Democracy]

(Original post by Politricks)
Cultural changes in countries can, and have, happened in short periods of time, there's absolutely nothing nonsense about that, so don't call it nonsense.

Are you Iranian? If not then pipe down. You don't seem to know much about how Islam is practiced in Iran, both before 1979 and today. To argue that rules like this are a) a part of Islam and b) therefore could be a part of Iranian culture is simplistic and nonsensical as it betrays a deep misunderstanding of how Islam is viewed and practiced in Iran.

Is the 'Islamic culture' prevalent among everybody in Iran? No, of course not, which is why I said 'partly'. Look at the cultural revolution that took place in Britain during the 1960s, was everybody, particularly the older generation, influenced by drugs, rock music and promiscuity?

"edit: however, before the revolution, the culture was relatively more liberal and 'Westernised', so Islam wasn't always a big part of Iranian life."

The fact that you have said that pre-1979 Iran was only "relatively" more liberal shows just how little you know about it. Iranian culture (in terms of attitudes towards women's rights, freedom etc) is still what it was before 1979 i.e. progressive and liberal. Tens of millions of men did not become domineering, sexist bastards overnight. Cultures and millions of people do not become deeply religious over the period of a few years, especially when those people are from a culture which is extremely proud and thousands of years old.

Like I said at the start, laws like this have been enforced on Iranians since the inception of the Islamic Republic. You can argue (incorrectly), that this particular law is "culturally influenced", but what about the law right at the beginning of the revolution which forced women to cover their hair? Are you saying that that was also cultural? That a whole culture, thousands of years old, changed in the space of a few months from most women not wearing the headscarf to most wearing it?

What DID change was that a misogynistic minority took over (by force), so the view that is presented to the outside world is overwhelmingly sexist and chauvinistic.

Are you saying that Shia Islam isn't a part of Iranian life?

Yes I am, because I don't treat my fellow countrymen and countrywomen as one homogenous mass. It's a part of life for some Iranians, to varying degrees. Certainly very few people take it extremely seriously or fanatically. Iranians are generally very religiously lax, especially compared to their neighbours. To suggest that these laws are "partly" cultural implies they are entrenched in a mainstream sort of way (so as to, uhh, make up a culture). However, anyone who has studied the history of women's rights in Iran, social progress and liberalism in Iran would realise it is nonsensical and unrepresentative to take the anomaly of the past 30 years and construct that as a "cultural" phenomenon.

[Phantom Lord]

(Original post by OSharp)
Im still waiting for a country to ban football for men so i can move there.

(Brace yourselves negative rep is coming)

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cer-games.html
Too bad for you it was temporary