Iran eases ban on women attending sports matches

DUBAI: Iran has partially lifted a ban on women attending men's sports matches, the deputy sports minister said on Saturday, days after a court pardoned an Iranian-British woman who had been jailed for protesting against the law.

Iran's Islamic law bars women from watching men playing sports. In January, the government said it would allow foreign women to attend men's matches, but Iranian women were still forbidden from doing so.

The new policy for women and families will come into effect during this Iranian year, Abdolhamid Ahmadi was cited as saying by state news agency IRNA. The Iranian calendar year ends in March 2016.

However, Ahmadi said some matches would remain off-limits.

"Of course, in some areas of sport families are not interested in attending nor is there a possibility for them to attend," he said.

Last week, the court of appeal pardoned Ghoncheh Ghavami, an Iranian-British national who had been arrested in June outside a stadium, where she and others were demanding that women be allowed in to watch a men's volleyball match.

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