Ayatollah Nasser Makarim-Shirazi , one of the Shia Grand Ayatollahs, declared that “there is no need at all for women to attend sport matches in the stadiums and arenas.” The Ayatollah, who was addressing the head of the ethics committee of the Football Federation FFIRI on Tuesday, added” We know that presence of women and men in stadiums will create problems. Moral corruption will spread because it is difficult to control such space..”

“We should not insist on the issue of allowing women in the stadia. We should not be terrorized (…) by Western values and follow whatever they say. We must protect our Islamic values. We must remain independent and we should not do whatever they demand.”

Makarim-Shirazi added “since these sport events have originated from the west , habits associated with its are also brought to our country. They want to bring their low morality to us with their sport. “

The Grand Ayatollahs, not only does not believe that  the marriage of convenience or “Sigheh”  sometimes referred to as temporary marriage , is not spreading moral corruption and is not an insult to women’s dignity and virtue,  but it is also strongly promoted within the religious hierarchy in Iran. However, the presence of a woman in a sport event is seen as spreading and promoting moral corruption!!!

For the record, the Iranian Kimia Alizadeh won Iran’s  first ever medal in the World Taekwondo Championships.

The 57kg woman player claimed a bronze medal in the 2015 World Taekwondo Championships in Russia on Monday.

Iran and Saudi Arabia share the ignominy of barring women attending sport events.