伊朗女性与男性在咖啡馆同看世界杯
It is rare for women and men in Iran to enjoy the thrill of sports together in public, but it happened over the weekend when several restaurants and cafes appeared to ignore a ban on broadcasting the World Cup.
据美国有线电视新闻报道，伊朗妇女和男子在公共场合共同享受运动快感实属罕见。但上周末，一些餐馆和咖啡馆似乎忽视了这条关于世界杯的禁令。
Inside one Tehran coffee shop, a young, veiled Iranian woman held her fiancé's hand tightly as the seconds ticked down in Iran's heart-stopping World Cup match against South American powerhouse Argentina.
Another woman gently bit her French-manicured（修剪） nails as she sat between two male friends who were drenched with nervous sweat and fast losing their voices.
Throughout the rest of the cafe other women intermittently cheered, gasped, and shouted instructions at the direction of the big screen TV.
"100 percent it's better this way," said Negar Valayi. "It doesn't happen often. It would be great if we have more of this."
"It's actually much better to watch it with a bunch of people around because it makes you feel more excited," said Roya Marzbahan.
Authorities in Iran banned women from entering most sporting events following the 1979 Islamic Revolution because mixed crowds enjoying games was deemed un-Islamic.
For the past 35 years, the crowds at football games -- Iran's most popular sport -- have been all male.
Iranian women were briefly allowed to attend volleyball matches during the presidency of moderate Mohammad Khatami but the ban was reinstated in 2005 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power.
In an apparent effort to avoid mixed crowds watching this year's World Cup, authorities warned restaurants not to broadcast games.
"We were told not to turn on the TV because it might create some problems," a restaurant hostess told CNN on the phone.