“I just cannot believe how much we shouted and cheered,” Maryam, 27, told Al-Monitor as she walked out of Tehran's Azadi Stadium. “I even cried at some point; I was so moved.”
On Oct. 10, the Iranian national soccer team scored 14 goals against the Cambodian team in the qualifier for the World Cup 2022, which will take place in Qatar. But the excitement of Maryam — and the international media frenzy — was not because of this impressive score; it was due to the fact that Iranian women were able to watch the game freely for the first time in decades.
