Irish female fans' ears will not be offended by foul Farsi in Tehran

Iranian soccer authorities have justified their decision to allow Irish women to attend the World Cup play-off in Tehran on the grounds that they will not understand the bad language being used by the home supporters. Female fans of Mick McCarthy's team will make history on November 15th when they become the first women to attend a match at Iran's national stadium since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Women have been banned from male soccer games since then, partly to protect them from the supporters' rude language and gestures.

Speaking to Reuters news agency yesterday, a spokesman for the Iran Soccer Federation confirmed that arrangements had been made to accommodate up to 300 visiting women. He explained: "The Irish do not speak Farsi, so they will not understand the bad language which most of the Iranian men use during the matches."

The women, who will just have to avert their eyes when it comes to the rude gestures, are to be accommodated in a "VIP" section of the stadium, separate from the men. But if their visit represents a small counter-revolution, it will fall well short of a mass movement.

Dublin tour agent 747 Travel reported only "five or six" women booked on its Iran package yesterday, although it expected more by the close of booking next Tuesday.

The company is circumventing another local tradition by using Cyprus as a base for the Tehran trip, thereby sparing Irish football supporters of either gender the spectre of a night without beer.

While it is unlikely that Irish women attending the match in Tehran will be exposed to language or gestures worse than those encountered at home games, The Irish Times contacted a Dublin-based Iranian football supporter last night to find out what terms of abuse, Farsi or otherwise, were likely to feature.

However, Mr Azad Shirazi, a businessman who left Iran just before the revolution and has not been back there since a holiday in 1980, struggled to recall anything more shocking than the standard queries raised by supporters worldwide about the quality of the referees' eyesight.

"It's mostly just jokes, or reminders of previous occasions when you beat the opposition, the usual craic that goes on at football matches", he said.

Between 800 and 1,000 Irish supporters are expected to travel to Iran for the match. The first leg of the two-match qualifier is at Lansdowne Road next Saturday.