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A makeup artist applies a false beard to Zeinab’s face, a football fan, on 14 December 2018. She disguises herself to attend the match between Persepolis and Pars Jonoubi Jam at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran and risks being arrested for doing so. It takes more than 3 hours to do her make-up each time she intends to go to the stadium. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In Iran, there have been restrictions on female fans entering football stadiums for more than forty years. As football is the nation’s most popular sport, the ban has been a controversial public issue. On 1 March 2018, FIFA president Gianni Infantino met with the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, to address the issue. Social-media groups also put the president under pressure. On 10 November, some selected groups of women were present for the FIFA president at the stadium when he was attending the AFC Champions League Cup match in Tehran. It was the only time that some female football fans felt that freedom, but they kept fighting for their rights. Some female football fans disguise themselves as men so they can cheer for their teams – an illegal act that can lead to their arrest. These women started a movement named “Zanan-e Rishdar” (“women with beard”) which opposes the ban against Iranian female football fans. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My name is Forough Alaei (@foroughalaei), I am a documentary photographer from Iran and I’ll be sharing my work on the World Press Photo Foundation Instagram Feed this week. I was awarded 1st prize in the Sports, stories category of #WPPh2019 Photo Contest for my project, ‘Crying for Freedom’. Follow the link in the bio to find out more about the winning story.

A post shared by World Press Photo Foundation (@worldpressphoto) on Jun 9, 2019 at 9:12am PDT

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Zeinab, a football fan, bandages her breasts to disguise herself as a man, on 14 December 2018, in order to enter the stadium for the match between Perspolis and Pars Jonoubi Jam in Tehran, Iran. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In Iran, there have been restrictions on female fans entering football stadiums for more than forty years. As football is the nation’s most popular sport, the ban has been a controversial public issue. On 1 March 2018, FIFA president Gianni Infantino met with the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, to address the issue. Social-media groups also put the president under pressure. On 10 November, some selected groups of women were present for the FIFA president at the stadium when he was attending the AFC Champions League Cup match in Tehran. It was the only time that some female football fans felt that freedom, but they kept fighting for their rights. Some female football fans disguise themselves as men so they can cheer for their teams – an illegal act that can lead to their arrest. These women started a movement named “Zanan-e Rishdar” (“women with beard”) which opposes the ban against Iranian female football fans. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My name is Forough Alaei (@foroughalaei), I am a documentary photographer from Iran and I’ll be sharing my work on the World Press Photo Foundation Instagram Feed this week. I was awarded 1st prize in the Sports, stories category of #WPPh2019 Photo Contest for my project, ‘Crying for Freedom’. Follow the link in the bio to find out more about the winning story.

A post shared by World Press Photo Foundation (@worldpressphoto) on Jun 9, 2019 at 1:09pm PDT

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‘Passie voor voetbal’

Alaei vertelde in april over haar fotoserie in The Guardian. “De passie voor voetbal en de vastberadenheid om op te komen voor hun rechten, blijft deze vrouwen bewegen. Ondanks het risico op een arrestatie”, vertelt ze. In 1979 was er een islamitische revolutie in Iran, waarna er een algemeen stadionverbod voor vrouwen werd ingesteld. Ook al is de ban omstreden; het verbod is er na veertig jaar nog steeds. “Dat mijn serie is genomineerd voor de World Press Photo versterkt hopelijk de stem van vrouwelijke voetbalfans in Iran.”

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Zeinab, a fan of Persepolis football club, presses her head to fix the postiche, on 14 December 2018. To enter the stadium, some women cut their hair but Zeinab does not want to cut hers. She also uses contact lenses to hide her green eyes. She believes that her eyes revealed her identity the four times she was arrested. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In Iran, there have been restrictions on female fans entering football stadiums for more than forty years. As football is the nation’s most popular sport, the ban has been a controversial public issue. On 1 March 2018, FIFA president Gianni Infantino met with the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, to address the issue. Social-media groups also put the president under pressure. On 10 November, some selected groups of women were present for the FIFA president at the stadium when he was attending the AFC Champions League Cup match in Tehran. It was the only time that some female football fans felt that freedom, but they kept fighting for their rights. Some female football fans disguise themselves as men so they can cheer for their teams – an illegal act that can lead to their arrest. These women started a movement named “Zanan-e Rishdar” (“women with beard”) which opposes the ban against Iranian female football fans. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My name is Forough Alaei (@foroughalaei), I am a documentary photographer from Iran and I’ll be sharing my work on the World Press Photo Foundation Instagram Feed this week. I was awarded 1st prize in the Sports, stories category of #WPPh2019 Photo Contest for my project, ‘Crying for Freedom’. Follow the link in the bio to find out more about the winning story.

A post shared by World Press Photo Foundation (@worldpressphoto) on Jun 10, 2019 at 1:47am PDT

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Zeinab (centre), a 22-year-old woman attends the match between Persepolis and Pars Jonoubi Jam at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran, on 14 December 2018. It seems strange to men that a woman has disguised herself as a man to enter the stadium. Some of the male fans looked at her suspiciously, while others didn’t notice that there was a woman next to them. As a female photographer, I'm not permitted to go to the stadium and I also disguised myself as a man to take these photos. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In Iran, there have been restrictions on female fans entering football stadiums for more than forty years. As football is the nation’s most popular sport, the ban has been a controversial public issue. On 1 March 2018, FIFA president Gianni Infantino met with the president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, to address the issue. Social-media groups also put the president under pressure. On 10 November, some selected groups of women were present for the FIFA president at the stadium when he was attending the AFC Champions League Cup match in Tehran. It was the only time that some female football fans felt that freedom, but they kept fighting for their rights. Some female football fans disguise themselves as men so they can cheer for their teams – an illegal act that can lead to their arrest. These women started a movement named “Zanan-e Rishdar” (“women with beard”) which opposes the ban against Iranian female football fans. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ My name is Forough Alaei (@foroughalaei), I am a documentary photographer from Iran and I’ll be sharing my work on the World Press Photo Foundation Instagram Feed this week. I was awarded 1st prize in the Sports, stories category of #WPPh2019 Photo Contest for my project, ‘Crying for Freedom’. Follow the link in the bio to find out more about the winning story.

A post shared by World Press Photo Foundation (@worldpressphoto) on Jun 10, 2019 at 5:27am PDT