Iranian women on Thursday were allowed to watch their national team compete in a football match in a stadium for the first time in three years.

Women were allowed into a 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Iraq at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran, marking their first stadium visit since October 2019.

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Ten thousand tickets were made available for the match, of which two thousand were reserved exclusively for women. The women were separated from the men’s sections and were monitored by police women, despite many wanting to watch the match with their significant others or family members.

The Islamic republic of Iran had banned women from going to stadiums for football matches for around four decades, dictated by clerics who argue that women should be shielded from masculine influences and from the sight of semi-clad males often seen in football stadiums.

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However, Iran was instructed in September 2019 by the world football governing body, FIFA, to allow women to attend football matches in stadiums. FIFA also demanded that women be allowed to attend without any restrictions and in numbers determined by the demand for tickets.

Following pressure from FIFA, women were allowed to attend a 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Cambodia in October 2019.

However, since then, national football matches started taking place without the presence of fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which still continues to wreak havoc across the world.

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The Group A match between Iran and Iraq on Thursday could determine whether Iran qualifies for a third successive World Cup appearance: a win in Tehran is all it will take for Iran to get a guaranteed spot at the World Cup.

Second-placed South Korea, semi-finalists in the 2002 World Cup, could also qualify for the 10th time in their history if third-placed UAE fail to beat Syria on Thursday.