FIFA World Cup: Football festival provides a stage for protests

Despite a ban imposed by Russia on any form of protest during the FIFA World Cup, the 2018 edition of the tournament is still serving as a grand stage for protestors from across the world.

From Ukrainians protesting outside the European Union Representative’s office in Kiev to Iranian women seeking their rights to enjoy soccer back home or pensioners in Russia demanding a retirement age hike, the World Cup has already seen numerous protests from across the globe with more than three more weeks to go before the final.

Iranian women’s protest

During Iran’s opening encounter against Morocco on June 15, Iranian women not only cheered the team and celebrated their victory but also displayed placards that read, “Let Iranian women enter the stadiums(sic)”. The banner was first unfurled by Maryam Qashqaei Shojaei.

A ban in force since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 prohibits Iranian women from attending any male-only sporting events in the country. Several Iranian films have dealt with the ban, protests by women and how women fans defied the ban to sneak into the stadia disguised as men. But the World Cup appears to have offered Iranian women another opportunity to register their protest.

In 2014, a British-Iranian student was detained while trying to attend a men’s volleyball match and spend more than 100 days in prison. A public outcry in Iran after her arrest went in vain but the women continued to protest. Even during the Iran-Morocco match, attempts were made to confiscate the banner but Iranian fans kept moving the flag from one side of the stadium to the other and succeeded in holding it aloft until the completion of the match.

In the Iran-Spain clash on June 20, Maryam with her banner was blocked from entering the stadium and detained by security officials for two hours. But she had succeeded in making her point.

British human rights activist protests for Russia’s LGBT community

A veteran British human rights activist, Peter Thatchell staged a protest in Moscow a day before the World Cup kicked-off against the alleged persecution of gay people in Russia. He held a placard near the Kremlin reading, “Putin fails to act against Chechnya torture of gay people”.

Challenging FIFA of awarding World Cup “to a nation where human rights are violated”, Thatchell in his column published in The Guardian had written, “I’m here for the World Cup – but unlike thousands of fans, I won’t be cheering on this festival of football.” He had actually gone to Moscow to protest the “state-sanctioned persecution and far-right violence” against the LGBT people.

“On the eve of the World Cup, far-right and ultra-nationalist gangs have threatened to bash and stab LGBT+ football fans. The authorities have taken no discernible action against the perpetrators of these criminal threats,” he had added.

Thatchell was also detained for holding the placard and was later released on bail. He is due to appear in court on June 26 after being charged with violating various Russian laws.

Ukrainians protest outside the EU representative’s office

On June 14, when the FIFA World Cup kicked-off, a demonstration was held in Ukraine’s Kiev outside the European Union representative’s office (near the Russian embassy) against the “Russian aggression on Ukraine”.

Hunger strike by Ukrainian director Oleh Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Russia on terror charges, widely condemned as politically motivated, was highlighted by protestors who pledged to boycott “a blood-soaked championship in Russia”. Sentsov was arrested in Crimea in 2014, after Russia seized the Ukrainian region.

Following the protests, the EU passed a resolution calling on Russia to "immediately and unconditionally" release Sentsov and other Ukrainian citizens. Sentsov and others have been "illegally detained" said EU to Russia.

Internal protests in Russia

Besides protestors from other countries, the World Cup is also serving as an opportunity for the Russian Opposition leaders to unleash their protests in the country.

“Since the start of the tournament, plans have been set in motion to raise the retirement age, increase value-added tax and lower the threshold for a tax on purchases from foreign online retailers. The retirement age hike is particularly unpopular: a petition against it has drawn 2.3 million signatures online,” reported the Moscow Times.

But the Opposition politicians, reported Moscow Times, have accused Putin’s regime of using ‘Russia's World Cup as a cover to avoid dissent’. Without prior permission, all large gatherings have been forbidden in Russia during the World Cup. The opposition alleged that citing the Presidential decree, authorities have refused permission for at least three separate pension reform protests in Moscow.