Iran’s theocratic regime has summoned a famous footballer over a ‘hug’with a female fan.
Footage allegedly showed Ramin Rezaian, defender at the Tehran-based Esteghlal, the oldest professional football club in Iran, embracing with a supporter in front of the team bus.
Iran’s Islamic law, in effect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, bans men and women who are not related from making any physical contact.
Until a year ago, women were also not allowed to watch football from the stadiums.
The Iranian Tasnim news agency reported that Rezaeian encountered the fan when the players were on the bus transporting them.
The 34-year-old will now have to appear before the ethics committee and explain the incident.
It reportedly happened on Thursday, before Esteghlal’s match against Chadormalu in the central Yazd province.
This is not the first time disciplinary action has been taken over such an incident.
In April, Esteghlal goalkeeper Hossein Hosseini was suspended for also embracing a female fan during a championship match.
He was slapped with a hefty fine of three billion Iranian rials and a one-game suspension.
Under the theocratic regime led by the Supreme Leader, women’s struggle has only worsened in 2024.
Earlier in December, authorities adopted a new draconian law that further erases their human rights, imposing the death penalty, flogging, jail terms and other severe penalties to crush the ongoing resistance to compulsory veiling, for example.
On Monday, hundreds of MPs signed a petition urging the UK government to pressure Iran into ending its ‘systematic’ use of the death penalty.
The number of executions has spiked in the months following the election of president Masoud Pezeshkian in July.
Co-president of the British Committee for Iran Freedom (BCFIF), Professor Lord Alton of Liverpool, said: ‘The time to act is now to prevent further atrocities and support the Iranian people’s fight for justice and freedom.
‘We urge the UK government to prioritise human rights, justice, and accountability in its 2025 Iran policy.
‘The international failure to hold the regime to account is inexcusable and has fuelled atrocity crimes and record executions reported from Iran today.
‘The UK must lead an international coalition to end this alarming trend by referring the regime to the UN Security Council, facilitating the prosecution of its leaders in an international tribunal or under existing mechanisms, given the overwhelming evidence of crimes against humanity.’
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