Vahid Salemi/Associated Press
When Iran’s national soccer team takes the field on Thursday for an otherwise humdrum World Cup qualifier, there will be outsize interest not in the action on the field but in who is seated in the stands.
For the first time in almost four decades, women will be allowed to buy tickets and attend a match.
The game on Thursday between Iran and Cambodia would typically merit little interest as another mismatch between a regional heavyweight and an also-ran in an early qualifier for the 2022 World Cup.
But the match in Tehran is arguably among the most consequential sporting fixtures to be played in years, as women will be watching from seats inside the Azadi, or Freedom, stadium, ending a prohibition that has been bitterly opposed.