Iran to let foreign women watch male volleyball event

Tehran (AFP) - Iran will break with custom and allow foreign women to attend male volleyball matches when it hosts a major tournament this summer, but female Iranian nationals will remain barred.

The decision, announced Wednesday by Iran's Volleyball Federation, comes almost three months after the sport's governing body, the FIVB, said it would not allow the Islamic republic to host international events while its gender policies remained in place.

Women in Iran are not normally allowed to watch male athletes in competition, with authorities saying the restriction protects them from potentially abusive behaviour among male fans.

However, the policy courted controversy when a British-Iranian female law graduate was arrested outside a stadium in the capital last June, having gone there to watch a volleyball match.

The woman, Ghoncheh Ghavami, was freed after a few hours but then re-arrested and jailed for months before being released on bail in November.

Iranian authorities have said she was detained for security reasons unrelated to the volleyball match.