Iran Travel Guide

Football (soccer) is the country's most popular sport and something of a national obsession. Please note that women can only attend women's sports (likewise men are restricted to men-only sports), apart from some football matches that feature segregated areas for women. For more information, see below.

Second only in popularity to football is wrestling, a sport at which Iranians excel. Iran has competed internationally and won medals at the Olympic Games.

An ancient sport peculiar to Iran is the zurkhaneh (literally, 'the house of strength'); for details, see the boxed text 'Zurkhaneh' (below).

Cricket is played mainly in the south of Iran. In northern Tehran, there are tennis clubs and an 18-hole golf course. Both run separate women's sessions.

Polo is believed to have originated in Iran and was certainly played during the reign of Darius the Great. A couple of millennia later, the huge main square of Esfahan were used for polo matches which would be watched by the Safavid Shah Abbas I from the balcony of the Ali Qapu Palace. Although the game didn't survive the revolution, horse riding is still popular in Iran.

Other popular sports in which Iran competes at international levels are weight lifting, volleyball, shooting, fencing, track and martial arts. More adventurous sports include scuba diving from Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, hang-gliding outside Tehran near Larijan (towards Amol) and sailing and water-skiing off the Caspian coast. Karaj Dam, about 42km west of Tehran, was, until recently, a popular place for water sports, though this has been temporarily stopped for environmental reasons.

Recently Iran has developed an enthusiasm for yoga and you can find single-sex classes in Tehran, Shiraz and Esfahan.

Also popular are skiing (Iran has sent both cross-country and downhill skiers to the Winter Olympics), mountaineering and hiking. Iranians are great walkers and like nothing better than to hike in the mountains or take a leisurely walk (accompanied by elaborate picnics) in the city parks on holidays.

Football

The world noticed Iranian football when, in the 1998 World Cup, the Iranian team did surprisingly well and played a historic game against the USA. In Iran the progress of the football team through the championship was greeted by cheering crowds the likes of which had not been seen on Iranian streets since the revolution. In addition, hundreds of women forced their way into the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran to welcome home the victorious national team, to which the authorities turned a blind eye. That same year a women's football league was formed. All-women football matches are held indoors and no males are allowed to watch.