Eight of Iran’s women’s football team ‘are men’, league official claims

In a rather freakish case, eight players of Iran’s women’s soccer team have been found to be either men or transgender.

Authorities reportedly ordered gender testing on Wednesday following the claims, made by Mojtabi Sharifi, an official working closely to the Iranian league.

The women’s team play in long-sleeved tops, jogging bottoms and the hijab headscarfs.

Not the first time there have been allegations about gender of Iranian female players.

The Iranian FA has been branded “unethical”, after it was alleged the players were actually men awaiting sex change operations.

In 2010, doubts were raised about the gender of the team’s goalkeeper. But in 2014 itself, a similar case was reported by the UK’s newspaper The Telegraph about four footballers from Iran’s national women’s team being men.

This resulted in the sports Iranian governing body introducing mandatory gender-testing in 2014.

Gender operations are legal in the country.

The legality of sex change procedures contrasts with the country’s otherwise strict laws regarding sexual morality under the nation’s Sharia code, which forbids homosexuality and pre-marital sex, among other things.

The Iran women’s team have never qualified for the World Cup or the Olympic finals, but they were runners-up in 2007 and 2011 at the West Asian Football Federation Women’s Championship.

Earlier this month the women’s national team captain was unable to fly with the squad to Malaysia because her husband refused her permission to fly.