Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Yellow Card: Iran's president, in a bold move, decided last month to allow women to watch soccer games in the upcoming World Cup tournament. The women would be segregated to a separate section, but they would be able to view the matches for the first time since 1979.

However, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, overruled the president's decision, claiming it is a violation of strict Islamic law to allow women to see men run around in short-shorts.

This is just depressing. Forget about educating women and providing them equal access under the law -- they can't even watch futbol. With all our hopes of liberalizing and democratizing the Middle East, we really have no idea how far we need to go.