Pink Card tells the story of Iranian women’s fight for freedom, rooted in soccer : NPR

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

For greater than 40 years, ladies couldn’t attend soccer video games in Iran. After Ayatollah Khomeini took energy in 1979, the Islamic Republic barred ladies from stadiums. However the ban sparked resistance. Feminine soccer followers protested on the gates of Iran’s nationwide stadium. They clashed with police. They sneaked into video games dressed as males. A brand new podcast from ESPN’s “30 For 30” tells the story of this insurrection. It is referred to as “Pink Card.” And host and creator Shima Oliaee informed me her understanding of how essential soccer is to ladies in Iran began together with her mother.

SHIMA OLIAEE: So once I would ask my mother about recollections of her childhood in Iran, I might get this type of damaged file reply of, oh, my gosh. We might play soccer. And this one time I used to be at this celebration, and my brothers, like, did not have a goalie. And so I changed the goalie. And so they have been like, little Manu (ph) – she simply scored a purpose. After which I might ask for one more story. I stated, OK. Do you may have one other reminiscence of your childhood? And she or he would say, oh, sure. I used to be at a marriage, and I used to be in my celebration costume. After which, proper after the cake, we performed soccer. After which I scored this purpose, and everybody was comfortable. After which she simply couldn’t cease speaking about her pleasure of soccer, which, for me, as her daughter, was so irritating. I used to be like, are you able to inform me another variation of this story of, like, something you skilled at the moment?

KELLY: However this feels essential to the way you got here to creating a podcast about ladies in soccer and protesting ‘trigger it feels essential for folks to grasp – Individuals won’t – simply how huge a deal soccer is in Iran. There’s one different…

OLIAEE: Yeah.

KELLY: There is a bit – I believe it is in your third episode – and we hear – I am going to play it. That is Sara (ph) describing Tehran shutting down for an enormous match. That is 1997.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “PINK CARD”)

SARA: You recognize, Tehran is an enormous metropolis. You by no means see the town quiet. There was nobody on the road.

KELLY: Nobody on the road ‘trigger they’re all dwelling watching the sport. So describe what it meant for girls who have been in Iran to be informed, no, you possibly can’t go.

OLIAEE: Iran at the moment in that specific episode was getting back from the Iran-Iraq Struggle. It had been devastated by the revolution. It had been devastated by a regime change and had been devastated by this battle. And girls had by this time been stripped of all their rights. And what occurs with soccer – soccer was an enormous a part of modernizing Iran. It was considered one of many issues that would convey Iran ahead into the twentieth century and lead different Western international locations to turn out to be an imperial type of nation and compete with the worldwide heavyweights. And girls’s rights mainly improved proper alongside the unfold of soccer within the nation.

However soccer survived. And the rationale it’s so beloved in Iran is the rationale it is in all probability beloved throughout the globe, which is it seems like the nice equalizer of a sport. Like, you do not want some huge cash to turn out to be superb at it. You’ll be able to play in filth. You should use all type of balls. You may make balls out of papier-mache, which I interviewed somebody who had accomplished that. You recognize, you may make makeshift targets. And so everybody on the streets – like, I interviewed so many Iranians, and they’d describe on a regular basis life in Iran. It is simply each nook – persons are taking part in soccer.

KELLY: It is so fascinating as a result of it is, as typically occurs with sports activities, it is concerning the sport. It is about, yeah, I wish to go see the large sport that everyone’s going to be speaking about. However it’s additionally about energy and about politics. And on this case, if you discuss ladies, it is about management.

OLIAEE: Sure. The Islam regime did not even need soccer to be this highly effective within the nation, however they might not do away with it (laughter) as a result of folks can be so upset. So ladies, as a result of they have been banned from the stadium in 1981, it is one of many many public locations they can’t enter, together with buses, you recognize, parks, the ocean. There’s locations within the ocean the place solely males can go. The stadium is a strategy to have delight in your nation even after a lot hardship. And by not permitting ladies to expertise that in a dwell type, it was a merciless type of punishment in direction of them. At the moment, ladies suppression and absence grew to become the image that the Islamic regime had energy and was doing nicely.

KELLY: Shima, how did you go about reporting this? May the ladies you wished to talk with communicate freely with you?

OLIAEE: Sara that you simply simply performed a clip from, from Episode 3 – that isn’t her actual title. She’s really nonetheless in Iran. There have been occasions once I couldn’t attain Sara for days at a time, and I believed one thing had occurred to her. It is as soon as you’re referred to as somebody who opposes the regime, you are by no means actually protected once more. It is so arduous to belief anybody, together with me. It was a complete new stage of journalism for me. Like, I simply – I would by no means reported on a inhabitants of those that might be killed at any time and who have been nonetheless dwelling within the trauma they have been describing.

KELLY: And also you’re – the podcast captures the battle, the resistance. It additionally – you additionally seize moments of pleasure. And I wish to let folks hear somewhat…

OLIAEE: Yeah.

KELLY: …Little bit of that. There’s this second – among the activists you have been following are literally about to get right into a match. That is Iran, about to play Korea 2009.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “PINK CARD”)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).

KELLY: That is them within the automotive.

OLIAEE: (Laughter).

KELLY: And then you definately seize once they really get in. They’re there. They get to see it.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “PINK CARD”)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You all the time watch TV. However if you enter the precise place, it’s very totally different – the vibe, the sound. It is like from two dimension to 3 dimension.

KELLY: Shima, give us the context to grasp that second.

OLIAEE: Sure. So there’s this ragtag group of ladies who’re named the White Scarves as a result of – I do not – I type of do not wish to give it away why they’re named that, however you discover out in Episode 3. And so they make it their mission to infiltrate the nationwide stadium, which has been renamed Azadi, that means freedom, Stadium, as they’re informed they’re now not allowed inside. So this group of ladies give you, like, plots and schemes as a way to infiltrate Azadi Stadium. And thru a unprecedented chain of simply, like, happenstance and luck, someway they find yourself being police escorted into the stadium and thru the three safety gates. And so they watched this sport, they usually recorded all of it.

What’s so thrilling as an audio producer is to listen to the sounds of ladies inside Iran. One of many issues rising up as an Iranian American that I noticed was I believed the sound of Iran was males screaming within the streets. You recognize, the hostage disaster had been seared in my mind. And in order that was what I believed the sound of Iran was. And listening to from the Iranian ladies – one among my goals with this collection was I wished to exchange our concepts of what Iran seems like with the sounds of Iranian ladies and ladies singing, laughing, protesting, laughing, like, rebelling. And that is precisely what I bought as a result of the White Scarves shared.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “PINK CARD”)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing in Non-English language).

KELLY: That’s Shima Oliaee, creator and host of the brand new podcast “Pink Card.” Thanks very a lot.

OLIAEE: Thanks a lot. I actually respect it.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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