Editorial: I never watch football deliberately, but now I am deliberately not watching it

Iranian soccer fans hold up signs reading Woman Life Freedom, prior to the World Cup group B soccer match between England and Iran at the Khalifa International Stadium in in Doha, Qatar on November 21. Photo / AP

I do not watch football.

Deliberately that is. I’ve probably occasionally been in a bar when a match was being shown on the big screen, but I have never, ever, paid money and gone to watch a game, nor have I deliberately turned on the television to watch a match.

Given I am English and the last World Cup the English team won was well before I was born, that could be construed as sour grapes of course, but it isn’t. I just don’t like the sport. Even when the Lionesses won the UEFA European Women’s Football Championship in July this year, while my feminist heart cheered I still didn’t tune in to a single match.

I can give you a hundred reasons I don’t like the game but it doesn’t actually matter really, because even though I don’t like the game, I can, should I suddenly change my mind and decide I like football, decide to go watch a match and do so.

I can go in person, pay my entry fee (if there is one), and watch a game. Heck, I could even join a team and play myself -presuming there was a team on the lookout for a midfielder with two left feet, a hatred of mud and a strong desire not to get kicked, bruised or break a nail in the name of sport.

So my not watching football is a choice. If I lived in Iran however, I wouldn’t necessarily have the luxury of that choice. Since 1979, women in Iran have not been automatically allowed to watch men’s football. Much was made in the news last week of Iran’s World Cup opener against England, not because of the score, but because for many female Iranian football fans, this was the first time they had been able to watch their national team play live.

How wonderful it was, gushed football pundits from their couches around the world, that Qatar didn’t stop women from entering the stadium to watch the beautiful game.

Well, ok. It IS nice that women can enjoy the same rights as men to watch a sporting event. But forgive me if I don’t clap. Qatar might “allow” women to watch men’s football, but it doesn’t allow women to marry without their male guardian’s direct consent. Nor does it allow women to travel or study without permission from their male guardian - normally a husband, father or brother.

Women aren’t allowed to be their own children’s legal guardian for that matter, meaning they can’t make decisions on medical treatment or education for them.

But gosh, isn’t it great Qatar allows women to watch football?

It’s not just women who suffer deprivation of rights in Qatar, the nation’s rulers’ strict adherence to the Wahhabi strand of Islam means homosexuality is not just illegal but punishable by death, and as for stadiums those “lucky” female football fans are so graciously allowed to enter? They have come at a great cost to migrant workers in Qatar - some of whom have lost their lives in the building of the stadiums, according to various human rights organisations.

So I won’t be clapping any matches this football World Cup. Nor will I be watching any. This World Cup I am deliberately not watching the games, but I am keeping score and I encourage everyone to join me. Rather than counting goals, let’s count the number of laws in Qatar that remove basic human rights from people, be they female, migrant or homosexual. Turn down the TV and raise your voice, not to cheer on a football team but to loudly advocate for a change to a society that might let women watch football, but doesn’t let them do much else.