Iranian Women and Full Contact Taekwondo

I’ve just returned from a three week trip through Iran and wondered about the things that surprised me the most. One of these feats has been watching full contact taekwondo on TV.

I have been monitoring all kind of media on how women are appearing in Iran. Mostly advertising avoids showing people and especially women. Women doing sport in public is rudimentary, though I’ve seen women jog (even without head scarf on the beach), riding a bike, playing volleyball. But I’ll comment on these things in a last blogpost.

Now, I was watching TV, scanning advertisement breaks, looking at soap operas – and then to my big surprise I’ve seen this covering of a sports event: Women fighting full contact taekwondo.

Any sports event concerning women in Iran is strictly limited to women. In the hall there isn’t any man! But my surprise has been seeing such an event on TV.

Things are changing, even in Iran. The mullahs might not like it, but the slow changing of society is taking place. And ii’s moving into the right direction.

 

All women must wear hijab - why not?

 

 

 Referees researching video because of a complaint

 

 

Discussions after the match

 

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