Women’s football fandom and stadium attendance in Iran: a form of everyday resistance?

To date, there is a scarcity of research examining women’s leisure lives in Iran, particularly their football fandom. In this study, we examine the development and negotiation of women’s fan identities, their experience of stadium attendance and alternative forms of fandom, as well as the extent to which their fandom is a form of everyday resistance. To do so, we draw on semi-structured interview data with ten women who attended matches at Azadi Stadium in Tehran. Utilizing identity theory and concepts of everyday resistance, we found women have highly salient fan identities, developed through various forms of fandom. This is despite gender and other factors such as geographical location acting as identity constraints. Due to historic restrictions in women attending stadiums, interviewees used alternative fandom as types of everyday resistance, opposing gender norms in subtle ways. Moreover, stadium attendance in itself symbolizes everyday resistance for women, a means to challenge others’ opposition to their fandom, and resist cultural expectations including ideas about “appropriate” gender norms. The significance of this article is demonstrated by the potential for women’s football fandom to contest gender inequality in Iranian society and we suggest it is both a form of activism and a leisure activity.