Iranian fan allowed to hold her sign at volleyball venue

She said that she briefly cried “because it hurts” but refused to leave the stadium when officials asked her to leave.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Iranian sports fan and activist Darya Safai returned to the Olympic volleyball venue repeating her message and hoping the whole world hears: “Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums”.

The International Olympic Committee said that Safai was forced to take down the sign because the Olympics “is not the place for political statements”.

Two days earlier, she was in tears when security officials told her she would have to leave if she kept it. I think it is a pity they always listen to what the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran says.

Iran national volleyball team, which has already booked a place at the quarterfinal round of the Rio Olympic Games, will face Russian Federation at its last preliminary round match at 10:30 p.m. Tehran time (1830 GMT) on Monday.

“They said they didn’t want the sign in front of the cameras and they asked us to leave”, Safai continued.

What I am fighting for is for the right for Iranian women to be at matches.

Fans cheer during a men’s preliminary volleyball match between Egypt and Iran at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016. “The people protect me”. In 2012, that ban was extended to volleyball games.

Since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, women have been banned from attending male sporting events in the country.

“This is not a political statement”. “This, to me, is not about politics, it’s about gender”.

In Iran, women are not allowed to attend the men’s football matches.

USA Volleyball chairwoman Lori Okimura has been outspoken on the issue – she even brought her own “Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums” T-shirt to Brazil – and checked in with Safai on Saturday to make sure she was OK.

Last November, Nilougair Ardalan, the captain of the women’s football team, was unable to go to an global competition after being forbidden by her husband to travel overseas. “Volleyball has always been about equality, why now are we not sending that same consistent message?”

After the incident in Rio, Safai received an outpouring of support online, according to The Independent.