"In Iran, football literally is a matter of life and death" | Dr. Babak Fozooni
episodePreviously titled “"In Iran, football literally is a matter of life and death" | Dr. Babak Fazooni” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 4, 2026
Transcript
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Off the ball rugby. You know, if it's like a similar picture to the one we just saw in Scotland where it's 50 points to 40 and we've played well for the majority of it but our defence has been a shambles and they somehow outscore us. I don't think it's the end of the world but I don't think we're going to lose to Scotland. Join in the obsession. Subscribe now at offtheball.com forward slash join. The Saints are marching on with three wins on the trot after a shaky start in the SSC Electricity Premier Division. Putting down the rocky road to Dublin to face St Pat's this Friday night are Doherty United. Doherty's men are in the drog house after two defeats in their last two matches. Will the informed James Brown help the Saints get payback after two home draws against the Louthmen last year?
League of Ireland, on off the ball. You are welcome back. So when the United States Secretary of War Pete Heskett says today that Tuesday is going to be the most intense day of strikes on Iran, it's hard to make the case that sport really matters in the context of everything that's happening in terms of US strikes on Iran. But this is a World Cup year and we have a situation where one of the tournament's co-hosts has attacked and is attacking one of the competition's participants. Separately then, last week, Iranian players refused to sing their national anthem at the Women's Asian Cup in Australia. They were referred to as traitors on state television back home. Five of the players have since been granted humanitarian visas in Australia, while Iran has said it's safer for them to return home.
Now, Dr. Babak Fazuni is a tutor at the Open University who has written and studied extensively in the field of Iranian studies, and I'm very happy to say that he is with us on the line. Dr. Fazuni, you're welcome to the show. How are you doing? Hi there. Thank you very much for inviting me. So let's begin with what happened in Australia last week. So the protesting of the Iran national anthem before the game with South Korea in the Asian Cup. There's something quite fitting about this, that this was a protest carried out by Iranian women. And it's quite fitting that this is one of the stories that has broken through despite the dozens and dozens and... well into the hundreds now, of lost lives over the past couple of weeks in the Middle East.
Because when you think about the uprisings and the protests in Iran over the past couple of years, the past decade really, you do think of women being to the fore of those protests. So there is a bit of a parallel there. I agree with you. I think that in a post-Islamic Iran, a number of things will surprise people. And one of them will be Iranian feminism. I think that their victory against patriarchy will be a shot in the arms for Western feminists and all women throughout the world. They have had it very hard. In the last 47 years, the situation is akin to the Republic of Gilead. For those of your listeners not familiar with that reference, it refers to Margaret Atwood's book, The Handmaid's Tale, which was also made into a TV series.
It's a highly authoritarian capitalist society, which is at the same time very patriarchal and takes over the bodies of women for the purpose of reproduction. I imagine how Iranian women feel. Now, football has played a prominent role in pushing the boundaries for Iranian women. I would go as far as to say that football has played the same role for Iranian women that the suffragette movement played for British women in the 1910s, 20s and 30s. The suffragette movement wasn't just a campaign for votes, it was also about abortion, about rent rises, about many other things. In the same way, Iranian women have used football in order to push the boundaries of their freedoms, and the government has been forced to cede ground.
Has this been a constant thing when it comes to the post-revolution years of Iran from the 1980s onwards, or is this a more common phenomenon that football and protest, certainly from the female population, have been intrinsically linked?
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–11:35
2
What recent events involving the Iranian Women's football team prompted discussion?
11:35–20:09
3
What role does Iranian feminism play in the context of football?
20:09–26:32
4
How has football been used as a form of protest in Iran?
26:32–26:49
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