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The Football Aficionado (2022) - عشق فوتبال

When love of football lands you in jail – ‘The Football Aficionado’ (2022)

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MJ-A
in

When a sport is global, modern parts of the world have decided that societal rules of anti-discrimination should apply to all countries. Thus, FIFA has the power to ban nations from the World Cup if their federations allow homophobic or racist chants in stadiums or preclude women from attending games. While FIFA has this power, they are extremely reluctant to apply it, and their progress is measured in inch-pebbles, not milestones.

The Football Aficionado is a 4-year effort by directors Paliz Khoshdel and Sharmin Mojtahedzadeh to document the story of accidental activist Zahra Khoshnavaz and her female friends. Fans of Persepolis in Tehran, these women want to be able to enter the national Azadi Stadium and enjoy a game. But by Islamist convention, they are not allowed to do this, and in fact, for a woman to go to a game in Iran is a crime.

In spite of the risks, Zahra persists, and the film follows her as she works on her disguise to attend the AFC semi-final match in 2018. The title in Arabic is عشق فوتبال, which translates as Love of Football.

Fact versus Fiction

Iran’s ban of women in stadiums was first explored in the 2006 drama Offside, by Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi. By contrast, the directors of The Football Afficionado show how the situation is unchanged 12 years later, when this documentary begins. But they document a new generation of Iranian women who protest their inequality on social media. Their protests seem small but ultimately have significant impact.

Zahra sees her activism as innocent and scoffs at any possible punishment. It’s more of a game to her, like a bird trying to find its way out of a cage. She gains weight so that she can more easily pass as a man. Her disguises are elaborate; she shaves her head and sticks prosthetics up her nose. Afterwards, she and the other bearded women post their triumphs on Instagram. Which, unfortunately, eventually leads to the women’s arrest.

A new external factor is that WC 2022 is coming to an Arab state for the first time in history. FIFA has more leverage and threatens to ban Iran from participating in Qatar if women are not allowed in stadiums for the world cup qualifying games. The issue suddenly has more import and becomes global news. In Mar-2019, fan Sahar Khodayari is arrested, and facing 2 years of prison, in Sep-2019 she dies by self-immolation in protest. She becomes known as the Blue Girl.

As a result, Iran as a country and as a Federation, goes through the motions of capitulating. At the Jan-2022 world cup qualifying match, 2,000 women are allowed to attend. This might be the soccer game that Zahra watches only on TV, as her lawyer has told her not to attend.

The Aftermath

Following the end of this film’s coverage, female attendance in stadiums was sporadic. In Aug-2022, 500 female fans were allowed into Azadi Stadium. It was not until the Oct-2022 death of Mahsa Amini, supposedly at the hands of prison guards for an act of haram, that even the Iranian MNT at WC 2022 expressed support for the end to gender discrimination. The players declined to sing the anthem. The last appearance of women in a stadium might be Dec-2023, when 3,000 women (3% of the stadium’s capacity) were allowed to attend a Persepolis game.

In Conclusion

I appreciate this story being told. But I had an issue with how it was told — there was no real timeline, just sub-titles mentioning that time had passed — 2 months later or 7 months later, etc. The film did not really cover Zahra’s arrest or trial. I had to do quite a bit of research to reconstruct what happened to her.

It appears that Zahra was imprisoned for awhile and then her family had to pay a large fine to get her out. In an Oct-2022 article, she said she was beaten in prison. It was also unclear what Zahra does/did for a living: she might have been a lawyer, a receptionist, a beautician, a poet, or an author.

What is clear from the final moments of the film is that Zahra is beaten down. She doesn’t even want to watch football anymore, not even a kid’s game. Not only has she suffered for her activism, but now she understands there are repercussions on her family.

It is always sad to realize there is no happy ending. Whether Zahra’s generation will continue to fight for equality is the real question.

7 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 7

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