Iranian Women and Football

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The paper examines football as a site of social contestation for Iranian women. The recent political controversy regarding women's attendance at football matches is indicative of this social conflict. I start by contextualizing this episode within a feminist framework of analysis. I then look at the development of Iranian women's participation in football as rioters, fans, players, referees, coaches, sports-writers and administrators of the game. Examples of women footballers from other cultures are provided in order to foreground commonalities and differences. Finally, I demonstrate how this movement is catalysng both Iranian feminism and the wider working-class social movement confronting the mullah-bourgeoisie.