Iranian Women's Soccer Captain Will Miss Asian Cup After Husband Takes Passport
In late-breaking "abridgment of basic human rights" news, Iranian women's soccer captain Niloufar Ardalan will not be present at the Asian Cup, as her husband has decided to invoke his legal, husbandly right to withhold her passport.
Per the Associated Press' Jon Gambrell, Ardalan's husband, sports journalist Mahdi Toutounchi, has taken the 30-year-old midfielder's passport to ensure she will be home for their son's first day of school, according to reports from Iranian news website Fararu.com.
Seems legit.
And the great (read: terrible) thing is that there is no real legal recourse for Ardalan. Toutounchi didn't just put her documents on a high shelf out of reach. He's acting within the given legal parameters of Iranian law, which posits that a man can deny his wife the ability to travel beyond the country's borders if he chooses.
As Gambrell reports, Iranians and supporters on social media have rallied around Ardalan, decrying the law and asking the government to intervene on the midfielder's behalf.
As for Ardalan, she's tried to downplay the rift the incident is causing at home between her and Toutounchi, but she says the Iranian government needs to make changes to the existing laws. After all, she just wants the opportunity to represent her country.
"I am only a national soldier who fights to raise flag of our country," she wrote in an Instagram post. "I wish a law would be approved that allows female soldiers to fight for raising the flag."
As we say in the States, just let the boys girls play.
Dan is on Twitter. Lil Tunechi would never stand for this.
