Iranian women can now attend sporting events

(Originally posted at The Carpetbagger Report.)

Needless to say, I and almost every other sensible person in the world have been rather critical of Iranian President Mahmoud "Madman of Tehran" Ahmadinejad's incendiary rhetoric, both with respect to Iran's budding nuclear program and to Israel and the Holocaust. See my post at the the Report here (as well as here, here, here, and here at The Reaction).

Now, I suspect that much of this rhetoric is intended directly for domestic consumption. Iranians are notoriously pro-American (particularly the reform and youth movements), but old-style nationalism runs far deeper than any sort of appreciation for American culture in the Iranian psyche. To deflect attention away from domestic problems, largely economic, and to bolster his own popularity, Ahmadinejad may just be stirring up trouble by concocting an "us" and "them" dynamic. Hence the push to join the nuclear club.

(If you see certain parallels to how Bush is operating, well, that's my intention. Ahmadinejad's "Other" is America, Israel, and everything else that allegedly stands in the way of Iranian glory. Bush's "Other" is some nebulous conception of terrorism well beyond just al Qaeda, as well as his own critics.)

But — gasp! — let's pause to give credit where credit is due. And Ahmadinejad (sigh) deserves some credit. From The New York Times:

Women can attend games in Iran's stadiums for the first time in nearly three decades, after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unexpectedly lifted a ban last week on their presence in the stands.

Senior clerics and conservative members of Parliament criticized the decision and said that frequent hooliganism at sporting events made them inappropriate for women.

But Mr. Ahmadinejad said women would promote better behavior.

"Certain prejudices against women have nothing to do with Islam," he said Friday, several days after lifting the ban. The speech seemed to present him for the first time as a supporter of expanded rights for women. "Unfortunately, whenever there is talk of social corruption, fingers are pointed at women. Shouldn't men be blamed for the problems, too?"

Um, yes. Sounds reasonable, no?

Men and women will be segregated, but don't think this isn't a huge step in the right direction (i.e., from authoritarian theocracy to liberal democracy). For all the current discussion about how best to deal with a nuclear Iran in the short term, such steps will ultimately benefit us all in the long term. (We may have to accept the reality of a nuclear Iran. Shouldn't it at least be a more progressive Iran?) The presence of women in Iran's soccer stadiums is indeed an encouraging sign that reform is possible.

(For more on this, see Franklin Foer's excellent book How Soccer Explains the World : An Unlikely Theory of Globalization, which includes a chapter on women in Iran.)