World
Declan Hayes
October 10, 2022
© Photo: REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Speaking of Iranian headscarves, MI5 have plumbed new depths by taking up the cause of Iran’s female football fanatics, those comely Iranian women who want to have the craic at football matches.

First off, not only do I support that demand not least because female Iranians would be a much better addition to our football terraces than are the current crop of British hooligans and their MI5 apologists. Iranians, like Japanese, have the right idea about sport: it is only a game and, in the case of football, one that the Iranians and Japanese have improved remarkably at. If Iranian women want to relish their men folk beating the United States, Wales and England in the World Cup, why not?

But MI5 have no interest in whether or not Iranian girls wanna have fun for MI5’s game is the much more lethal one of regime change. This can be seen by the way MI5 has turned the demand for Iranian women to dispense with headscarves into a bloodbath of ordinary Iranians, who are otherwise preoccupied surviving the murderous sanctions MI5 have imposed on them, their sisters and their daughters.

And, of course, Iranian women are entitled to enjoy life’s sunny side as they see fit. But so too did Mahammed Bakr, Mohammed Ramz Bakr, Ahed Atif Bakr and Zakaria Ahed Bakr, the four little waifs, with barely the weight of a quail between them, the Israeli air force fried on a Gaza beach for the crime of kicking a ball. Or Ryan Sulamain, the little Palestinian kid pictured here being waked by his class mates after the Israeli military in Jerusalem literally frightened the little boy to death. Or thousands of other tráiníns I have met in Palestinian refugee camps. What would they have given for a chance to adulate Ronaldo, Messi or even their own Palestinian players Israel routinely mutilates? Or even to kick ball without the Israeli Air Force barbecuing them alive?

Or how about legendary Jordanian weight lifter Nader Afouri, who Israel tortured for decades because he would not take the knee to them and who was left blind, crippled and incontinent as a consequence? I would hope and expect all sport loving Iranian girls and women would bow the knee to him as he is the mettle the gods of all sport are hewn from.

But the sporting sins of Israel and their partners in crime, though hewn from hell’s own sulfur, cannot, of course, be laid at the feet of Iranian women who want to savor the good times that are their due. As they also are, of course, of Russian women and girls, of shining comets like Kamila Valieva and Maryana Naumoya who’d gladly cheer on, if given the chance, their own footballing heroes in Qatar or, for that matter, Tehran in the company of Iran’s football loving women and girls.

But look at the price of entry NATO charges for such innocent pursuits. Russians, if they want to kick ball, lift weights or skate around a frozen rink, have to denounce “Putin”, the Russian Armed Forces and, by extension, their friends and family, whose flag is Russia’s, whose blood is Russian and whose protectors are the men and women of the Russian Armed Forces. NATO, of course, knows there is no chance of playing that crap in Russia’s equivalent of Peoria.

As Russian athletes must, if they want to compete, walk under a yoke far more degrading than any ancient Rome ever used, let’s repeat. To NATO, sport is strictly business and a very nasty, Mafia like one at that. When they are not terrorizing Russian teenagers, torturing Jordanian weight lifters, slaughtering Gazan children or crippling Iraqi waifs (whom they then parade like circus freaks at English Premier League matches), they are championing the rights of Iranian girls and women to attend football matches.

Or, rather, they are pretending to. Open Stadiums, MI5’s front group pretending to champion these Iranian women, is no more an independent actor than is any other sporting con job the state controlled BBC or the Daily Mail champion, even as these two faced hypocrites now call for Iran to be expelled from the World Cup.

So on to the solution. Let Russia host their own scalable version of The Friendly Games, in, say, Sochi with sponsorship coming from the big Russian oil and gas companies and their international partners. Then, Iranian girls and women can attend, but without Iran’s morality police but with Crimea’s Cossacks ensuring MI5’s Pussy Riot, Femen and similar fifth columnists do not disrupt proceedings.

At day’s end, whatever games the sporting authorities of Cuba, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Belarus, Nicaragua, the Central African Republic, Serbia, Syria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and China decide to play in Crimea or anywhere else won’t keep me up at night, I do, however, know one home truth many of those entities refuse to know. That is, that NATO is crushing them one at a time or all together because, at day’s end, and irrespective of the prowess of Kamila Valieva and Maryana Naumova, and regardless of the dreams of Palestinian boys or Iranian girls, to NATO, the rights of Iranian girls and women, like the mass murders MI5 is conducting in Iran and Ukraine or the daily war crimes they perpetrate in Syria and Palestine, is strictly business. So, yes, although Iranian women and girls should enjoy themselves, with or without head dresses at football matches, they must also remember, as I am absolutely sure they will, what NATO is doing to Syrian, Yemeni, Russian, Palestinian and, now even on Iran’s own streets, to Iranian girls who likewise want to enjoy those same, simplest of life’s pleasures.

Iran’s Female Football Fanatics

Speaking of Iranian headscarves, MI5 have plumbed new depths by taking up the cause of Iran’s female football fanatics, those comely Iranian women who want to have the craic at football matches.

First off, not only do I support that demand not least because female Iranians would be a much better addition to our football terraces than are the current crop of British hooligans and their MI5 apologists. Iranians, like Japanese, have the right idea about sport: it is only a game and, in the case of football, one that the Iranians and Japanese have improved remarkably at. If Iranian women want to relish their men folk beating the United States, Wales and England in the World Cup, why not?

But MI5 have no interest in whether or not Iranian girls wanna have fun for MI5’s game is the much more lethal one of regime change. This can be seen by the way MI5 has turned the demand for Iranian women to dispense with headscarves into a bloodbath of ordinary Iranians, who are otherwise preoccupied surviving the murderous sanctions MI5 have imposed on them, their sisters and their daughters.

And, of course, Iranian women are entitled to enjoy life’s sunny side as they see fit. But so too did Mahammed Bakr, Mohammed Ramz Bakr, Ahed Atif Bakr and Zakaria Ahed Bakr, the four little waifs, with barely the weight of a quail between them, the Israeli air force fried on a Gaza beach for the crime of kicking a ball. Or Ryan Sulamain, the little Palestinian kid pictured here being waked by his class mates after the Israeli military in Jerusalem literally frightened the little boy to death. Or thousands of other tráiníns I have met in Palestinian refugee camps. What would they have given for a chance to adulate Ronaldo, Messi or even their own Palestinian players Israel routinely mutilates? Or even to kick ball without the Israeli Air Force barbecuing them alive?

Or how about legendary Jordanian weight lifter Nader Afouri, who Israel tortured for decades because he would not take the knee to them and who was left blind, crippled and incontinent as a consequence? I would hope and expect all sport loving Iranian girls and women would bow the knee to him as he is the mettle the gods of all sport are hewn from.

But the sporting sins of Israel and their partners in crime, though hewn from hell’s own sulfur, cannot, of course, be laid at the feet of Iranian women who want to savor the good times that are their due. As they also are, of course, of Russian women and girls, of shining comets like Kamila Valieva and Maryana Naumoya who’d gladly cheer on, if given the chance, their own footballing heroes in Qatar or, for that matter, Tehran in the company of Iran’s football loving women and girls.

But look at the price of entry NATO charges for such innocent pursuits. Russians, if they want to kick ball, lift weights or skate around a frozen rink, have to denounce “Putin”, the Russian Armed Forces and, by extension, their friends and family, whose flag is Russia’s, whose blood is Russian and whose protectors are the men and women of the Russian Armed Forces. NATO, of course, knows there is no chance of playing that crap in Russia’s equivalent of Peoria.

As Russian athletes must, if they want to compete, walk under a yoke far more degrading than any ancient Rome ever used, let’s repeat. To NATO, sport is strictly business and a very nasty, Mafia like one at that. When they are not terrorizing Russian teenagers, torturing Jordanian weight lifters, slaughtering Gazan children or crippling Iraqi waifs (whom they then parade like circus freaks at English Premier League matches), they are championing the rights of Iranian girls and women to attend football matches.

Or, rather, they are pretending to. Open Stadiums, MI5’s front group pretending to champion these Iranian women, is no more an independent actor than is any other sporting con job the state controlled BBC or the Daily Mail champion, even as these two faced hypocrites now call for Iran to be expelled from the World Cup.

So on to the solution. Let Russia host their own scalable version of The Friendly Games, in, say, Sochi with sponsorship coming from the big Russian oil and gas companies and their international partners. Then, Iranian girls and women can attend, but without Iran’s morality police but with Crimea’s Cossacks ensuring MI5’s Pussy Riot, Femen and similar fifth columnists do not disrupt proceedings.

At day’s end, whatever games the sporting authorities of Cuba, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Belarus, Nicaragua, the Central African Republic, Serbia, Syria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and China decide to play in Crimea or anywhere else won’t keep me up at night, I do, however, know one home truth many of those entities refuse to know. That is, that NATO is crushing them one at a time or all together because, at day’s end, and irrespective of the prowess of Kamila Valieva and Maryana Naumova, and regardless of the dreams of Palestinian boys or Iranian girls, to NATO, the rights of Iranian girls and women, like the mass murders MI5 is conducting in Iran and Ukraine or the daily war crimes they perpetrate in Syria and Palestine, is strictly business. So, yes, although Iranian women and girls should enjoy themselves, with or without head dresses at football matches, they must also remember, as I am absolutely sure they will, what NATO is doing to Syrian, Yemeni, Russian, Palestinian and, now even on Iran’s own streets, to Iranian girls who likewise want to enjoy those same, simplest of life’s pleasures.

Speaking of Iranian headscarves, MI5 have plumbed new depths by taking up the cause of Iran’s female football fanatics, those comely Iranian women who want to have the craic at football matches.

First off, not only do I support that demand not least because female Iranians would be a much better addition to our football terraces than are the current crop of British hooligans and their MI5 apologists. Iranians, like Japanese, have the right idea about sport: it is only a game and, in the case of football, one that the Iranians and Japanese have improved remarkably at. If Iranian women want to relish their men folk beating the United States, Wales and England in the World Cup, why not?

But MI5 have no interest in whether or not Iranian girls wanna have fun for MI5’s game is the much more lethal one of regime change. This can be seen by the way MI5 has turned the demand for Iranian women to dispense with headscarves into a bloodbath of ordinary Iranians, who are otherwise preoccupied surviving the murderous sanctions MI5 have imposed on them, their sisters and their daughters.

And, of course, Iranian women are entitled to enjoy life’s sunny side as they see fit. But so too did Mahammed Bakr, Mohammed Ramz Bakr, Ahed Atif Bakr and Zakaria Ahed Bakr, the four little waifs, with barely the weight of a quail between them, the Israeli air force fried on a Gaza beach for the crime of kicking a ball. Or Ryan Sulamain, the little Palestinian kid pictured here being waked by his class mates after the Israeli military in Jerusalem literally frightened the little boy to death. Or thousands of other tráiníns I have met in Palestinian refugee camps. What would they have given for a chance to adulate Ronaldo, Messi or even their own Palestinian players Israel routinely mutilates? Or even to kick ball without the Israeli Air Force barbecuing them alive?

Or how about legendary Jordanian weight lifter Nader Afouri, who Israel tortured for decades because he would not take the knee to them and who was left blind, crippled and incontinent as a consequence? I would hope and expect all sport loving Iranian girls and women would bow the knee to him as he is the mettle the gods of all sport are hewn from.

But the sporting sins of Israel and their partners in crime, though hewn from hell’s own sulfur, cannot, of course, be laid at the feet of Iranian women who want to savor the good times that are their due. As they also are, of course, of Russian women and girls, of shining comets like Kamila Valieva and Maryana Naumoya who’d gladly cheer on, if given the chance, their own footballing heroes in Qatar or, for that matter, Tehran in the company of Iran’s football loving women and girls.

But look at the price of entry NATO charges for such innocent pursuits. Russians, if they want to kick ball, lift weights or skate around a frozen rink, have to denounce “Putin”, the Russian Armed Forces and, by extension, their friends and family, whose flag is Russia’s, whose blood is Russian and whose protectors are the men and women of the Russian Armed Forces. NATO, of course, knows there is no chance of playing that crap in Russia’s equivalent of Peoria.

As Russian athletes must, if they want to compete, walk under a yoke far more degrading than any ancient Rome ever used, let’s repeat. To NATO, sport is strictly business and a very nasty, Mafia like one at that. When they are not terrorizing Russian teenagers, torturing Jordanian weight lifters, slaughtering Gazan children or crippling Iraqi waifs (whom they then parade like circus freaks at English Premier League matches), they are championing the rights of Iranian girls and women to attend football matches.

Or, rather, they are pretending to. Open Stadiums, MI5’s front group pretending to champion these Iranian women, is no more an independent actor than is any other sporting con job the state controlled BBC or the Daily Mail champion, even as these two faced hypocrites now call for Iran to be expelled from the World Cup.

So on to the solution. Let Russia host their own scalable version of The Friendly Games, in, say, Sochi with sponsorship coming from the big Russian oil and gas companies and their international partners. Then, Iranian girls and women can attend, but without Iran’s morality police but with Crimea’s Cossacks ensuring MI5’s Pussy Riot, Femen and similar fifth columnists do not disrupt proceedings.

At day’s end, whatever games the sporting authorities of Cuba, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Belarus, Nicaragua, the Central African Republic, Serbia, Syria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and China decide to play in Crimea or anywhere else won’t keep me up at night, I do, however, know one home truth many of those entities refuse to know. That is, that NATO is crushing them one at a time or all together because, at day’s end, and irrespective of the prowess of Kamila Valieva and Maryana Naumova, and regardless of the dreams of Palestinian boys or Iranian girls, to NATO, the rights of Iranian girls and women, like the mass murders MI5 is conducting in Iran and Ukraine or the daily war crimes they perpetrate in Syria and Palestine, is strictly business. So, yes, although Iranian women and girls should enjoy themselves, with or without head dresses at football matches, they must also remember, as I am absolutely sure they will, what NATO is doing to Syrian, Yemeni, Russian, Palestinian and, now even on Iran’s own streets, to Iranian girls who likewise want to enjoy those same, simplest of life’s pleasures.

The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.

See also

See also

The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.