Second Islamic games for women opens Saturday in Tehran

TEHRAN, Dec 12 (AFP) - Iran opens its second Islamic games for women here Saturday, with Iranian women breaking taboos to participate in a karate competition for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The exclusively female games bring together female athletes from 26 Moslem countries, according to organizers.

The games, which will officially open Saturday afternoon with a ceremony in the Azadi stadium west of Tehran, follows a first such event organized by Iran in February 1993.

During the games, a team of 16 Iranian women will fight for titles in a karate contest, a first for Iranian women since the Islamic revolution and another new sport for the Games, equestrian competition.

Other scheduled events are track and field, chess, swimming, basketball, volleyball, tennis, shooting, handball, badminton, gymnastics and squash.

Athletes from six countries -- Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Yemen -- have already arrived here. The rest of the teams are to arrive by Friday, according to organizers.

The games are organized by Iran's Sports Solidarity Council for Women, headed by Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

According to the official program, the games were originally to be hosted by Pakistan. But they returned to Iran after Islamabad pleaded financial difficulties.

To extend the games beyond the Moslem world, the organizers have also invited a representative from the International Olympic Committee to watch the games.

"Our women will show that they are no less able than our men on the sports field," the moderate Iranian daily Hamshahri wrote Thursday.

Following the Islamic revolution in Iran, women's sports were ignored. The participation of women in public sports contests was deemed by clerics to be contrary to the traditional role of women in Islam.

But women's interest in sports has made a comeback in recent years, with women demanding to be included in the country's sports life.

Early this month 5,000 Iranian women forced their way into Azadi stadium to join a welcome ceremony for Iran's football team afer it qualified for the 1998 World Cup finals in France.

The women, dressed in the scarves, black robes and long coats mandatory in the Islamic Republic, broke a taboo in place since the revolution on women attending sports events in the presence of men.

Accompanied by their children, they sat in a separate section of the stadium to cheer their country's sports heros.

Related links

* Iran News
* Complete list of Iranian online media