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Associated
Press
NASSER KARIMI
 TEHRAN,
Iran (AP) - Iran's women will be barred
from attending soccer games, a reversal by the president that comes a month
before the national team plays in the World Cup.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
had ruled in April that he would allow women to go to soccer games and sit
in a separate section of the stands. He wanted to "improve soccer-watching
manners and promote a healthy atmosphere."
But Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - who
under the Islamic Republic's constitution has the final say - opposed the
move.
"The president has decided to revise his decision based on the supreme
leader's opinion," Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hossein
Elham said Monday.
Ahmadinejad's decision to allow women into
stadiums had provoked outrage among hardline
Shiite Muslim clerics, who supported his election last year and who have
tightly controlled Iranian society since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran's
Islamic law imposes stringent restrictions on women. They need a male
guardian's permission to work or travel, and have rarely been allowed to
attend public sports events.
In 2001, a group of Irish women was permitted to attend a World Cup
qualifier between Iran
and Ireland in Tehran.
The monthlong World Cup begins June 9 in Germany. Iran is grouped with Mexico, Angola
and Portugal
in the 32-team tournament.
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