All-Women Games open in Iran

By NASSER KARIMI
.c The Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – About 600 women from 17 countries will participate
in the All-Women Games for Muslim and Asian Capitals, and men will be
barred from watching all but one of the events.

The only sport that will be open to all spectators is shooting, the
lone event in which women’s bodies will be completely covered. Other
sports at the weeklong competition – which has drawn athletes from
countries including Afghanistan, Armenia, Iraq and Thailand – include
athletics and swimming.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran promotes women sports while it
safeguards cultural values,” parliament speaker Gholam Ali Haddad
Adel said to about 10,000 men and women attending Sunday’s opening
ceremony.

“We like to prove to the world women could compete and observe the
Islamic dress code as well.”

In the past, Iranian female athletes were restricted from
participating in sporting events because of their country’s strict
dress code. In public, Iranian women are required to wear baggy
smocks and head scarves in line with strict Islamic teachings. More
traditional women cover themselves with chadors, or loose unsewn black
sheets.

Iran also bars mixed competition and restricts mingling between
unrelated males and females in public.

Iranian women have often participated in international shooting or
chess competitions, where they can keep their headscarves and
full-length outfits. Iranian women took part in the shooting events
at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2000 Sydney Games.

Conservative clerics have opposed women in sports, but moderates have
succeeded in promoting the idea, gradually convincing some members of
the conservative camp to soften their opposition.

Iran co-organized the Muslim Women Games with other Muslim countries
in the mid-1990s, and hosted the Third Muslim Women Games in 2001.

01/23/05 17:48 EST