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bargeboo: i was still living in iran when iranian athletes were banned by the government to compete against those from us, isreal and iraq. those were the horrible days of war; when oppression and expressions of hatred against the evils of the western world was the daily message. 1998 saw several historical events when iranians faced americans for a soccer match (many argued that iri would not have risked riots which would have happened if soccer had been cancelled - it is that important to the people, yes!) and us wrestling team arrived in iran for friendly competition. move forward to year 2004 when iranian athletes were once again banned from facing those from isreal. i was living aboard by then but the shame of having the name of THAT government on my country burned just as deep.
flash forward to today. german officials are proposing the idea of banning iran from world cup, perhaps following on the successes of the 28 year ban of south africa from olympics as a reaction to their apartheid policy. now cnn is conducting a poll on this ban of iranian soccer team to enter world cup. (if you care to vote, scroll down and look at the right side of the screen.) how so very quickly the victim turns into the bully; the oppressed into the oppressor and the snubbed into the snob. perhaps easier to justify when we talk about bitter historical grudges in the case of jews of the new isreal or the kurds of the new iraq, but not so clearly arguable when it comes to one of the very few activities in the world where we as humans try to channel our aggression in a less bloody direction: professional sports. ----------------- * A very interesting article by christian bromberger on sports in iran, its history, current trends and its political undertone. although it is a little long but it touches on many subjects including the spontaneous street celebration upon iran’s entry into the world cup, iranian women and their struggle in being accepted as sport fans and other interesting observations: a highly recommended read. ** israel forum - explore their thread on this same subject. *** take a moment and remember the 11 isreali athletes who were killed by terrorist in 1972, munich.