TEHRAN - Iran daily wrote Thursday that Iranian women will be allowed to play football, and that a first series of classes had been held to train coaches and referees for women's football. Apparently because of continuing insistence, football has been added to the sports women can play, it said. Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is a strong advocate of women's sports, and she recently said women may be allowed to play football.

Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, Head of the Physical Education Organisation, was summoned by several conservative MPs to a closed-door session of parliament last month to explain the situation with women's football. According to newspapers, he said at the time that the issue of women's football is out of our hands and it needs a decree from senior religious jurists to lift the ban.

Hashemi-Taba also said that it had to be ascertained if the proper facilities existed in Iran for the sport for women.