While Team Melli will face Cambodia at Azadi Stadium on Thursday evening, women have bought more tickets than men up to this Wednesday morning according to the latest figures on electronic ticket sales.

Team Melli is playing its second match in the group and the first home game at  Azadi Stadium as part of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022  Group Qualifier.

Out of a total of about 75,000 seats available for sale, only 2500 eTickets were bought by male spectators. E-ticketing started on Thursday, October 5th at 9 pm, from the moment the e-ticketing began females purchased 3500 tickets. It is clear that females were eager to grab the tickets fearing high demand on the limited number of seats available to them.

In the one week that had passed since the launch of the electronic ticketing system. 6,000 seats were sold, however, the actual attendance is expected to be much higher with last-minute purchases.

The 100,000 capacity Azadi Stadium is limited to 75,000 spectators. This restriction is due to safety concerns and the number of seats installed.

The foreign press has wrongly reported that Iran-Cambodia match on Thursday is the first time that females will be allowed to attend a football match in Iran since the revolution. The fact is, females have attended many games before after the authorities have eased that restriction on several occasions without dispensing of the official restrictions which were still practised until recently. There is no clear cut laws in Iran that prevent women from attending matches. Volleyball has the highest number of female attendance in all sports in Iran.

 a Meanwhile, horde of foreign media is attending the match as Iran has been under scrutiny for banning women from stadiums. The bans are not a football federation or government mandate but powerful clerics have been publically calling for such ban arguing that females must be shielded from masculine atmosphere and sight of semi-clad men. Iranian females have always been actively participating in social activities without any restrictions including the right to drive, working in a mixed environment and travelling on their own. The Islamic revolution has put many restrictions on women one of which is the forceful wearing of headscarves and full-body cladding.

For this match, with the world and particularly FIFA the governing body watching closely, the authorities seem to have prepared quite well for the female entrance to Azadi with even special parking reserved for female drivers.  There also special washrooms and facilities for females only. The parking in  Azadi, one of the more difficult parts of attending a match there, in itself would have encouraged more female attendance.