TARGET 00811

Iranian Women’s Rugby

Team lineup

The team lineup

Women's rugby was first introduced to Iran 10 years ago, and has grown in popularity ever since.

Wearing tight-fitting headscarves and full tracksuits to protect their modesty, the players caused quite a stir when they played in Europe for the first time.

Taking to the field in a women's seven-a-side tournament in Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy, they were dealt a 10-0 defeat by the host nation and then suffered a further 33-0 setback in a second game.

Fighting back

Unstoppable

But the players, whose hands and faces were the only areas of skin on public view, bounced back, defeating local side Valsugana 10-3.

The team represents the new Iran

Captain Zohre Eyni briefs the team.

In all the matches the team played wearing the 'maghnaeh', a veil that fully covers the head, shoulders and neck, along with red tracksuit tops and bottoms.

Iranian team coach Fatme Molai, who has been in the job for four years, said: 'Wearing a veil does not change our method of play - clothes are something you wear and don't influence what you know how to do.

'The whole team has learnt how to keep the veil in place so that it doesn't interfere with play and I think we have shown that even a physical game like rugby can be played in a veil.

'There are no risks playing in a veil, as I said what is important is that you arrange it safe and well, what you have to be careful with is losing your tracksuit bottoms in a tackle or scrum.'

The team and their coach

The team and their coach

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Alireza Iraj, Tehran women's rugby coach, said as a man he had to stick with one of Iran's Islamic rules which states that members of the opposite sex cannot touch each other unless they are married couples or immediate members of a family.

When advising the team on how to tackle, Iraj keeps a decent distance away from the women and then instructs one of the players to demonstrate how to grab an opponent rather than carrying out the move himself.



To learn more about International Women's Rugby, take a look at the following web sites:

U.S. Women's Rugby Foundation
Wikipedia