Araz News via TGN: A ban on women attending two volleyball matches against the US is reviving a fierce debate in Iran, with some accusing the government of backing down to conservatives.

The Volleyball World League men’s games in Tehran, one of them on Sunday, are generating huge excitement – especially given the two countries’ difficult relations after 35 years without diplomatic ties.

When the government announced earlier that some women would be allowed entry, despite a long ban on them attending men’s sporting events, many female fans were hopeful.

But media have since said only 200 of the 12,000 seats in the arena at Tehran’s Azadi sport complex will be reserved for women – specifically female officials from the volleyball federation and players’ relatives.

This has sparked accusations that Iranian authorities are still not willing to take on the country’s hardliners despite promises of increased openness.

Many women’s rights activists have taken to social media to voice their frustration, posting on Twitter under the hashtag #letwomengotostadium.

“Really, what’s wrong with women being in stadiums?” one asked. Another wrote: “So they just lied that they would let women in the volleyball stadium? Is that how we work?”

Rules prohibiting women’s access to stadiums have been in place since Iran’s revolution of 1979, officially to protect them from obscene behaviour among male fans.

The government of President Hassan Rouhani has been trying to relax the restrictions despite opposition from religious conservatives. Recently, some women watched a male basketball match from a cordoned-off section of a venue in Tehran.

The issue of gender at sporting events garnered international attention after the arrest last summer of a British-Iranian law graduate, Ghoncheh Ghavami, who took part in a protest outside a stadium in the capital before a male volleyball match.

Jailed for five months before being released on bail, she was later sentenced to a year in prison for propaganda against the regime and for having contacts with opposition groups. An appeals court eventually dropped other charges against her.

The case caught the attention of volleyball’s governing authority, the FIVB, which last November banned Iran from hosting international championships because of the single sex rules on spectators.

Iran’s vice president for women’s affairs, Shahindokht Molaverdi, has expressed support for women being allowed to watch sports played by men, admitting to not knowing the reasons for restrictions.

In April last year, Rouhani admitted there were “deficiencies in women’s rights and in gender equality”, urging acknowledgement that “women stand alongside men and the two are equal.”

But the government’s moves toward reform have hit barriers, highlighting a split between conservatives anxious to preserve Islamic traditions and others in Iran who want greater openness.