Offside is a 2006 film directed by Jafar Panahi. If you are a woman, you are forbidden from watching a soccer game in a stadium in Iran. Offside is the story of a group of women who decided to go anyway.
Offside is a work of fiction, but on Sept. 9, 2019, an Iranian woman, 29-year-old Sahar Khodayari, a soccer fan died. She had been arrested in March for “appearing in public without a hijab” when she attempted to enter the stadium “dressed as a man” to see a game. When she learned she could face 6 months in jail, she set herself on fire and died two weeks later. She is known as #BlueGirl and her death has sparked an international outcry demanding that the ban be overturned.
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