As the referee’s whistle signalled the start of the match, two five-year-old Iranian girls faced off, delivering a closely watched karate bout to a captivated audience — a sign of the changing attitude toward martial arts in the Islamic Republic in recent years.
The two young opponents, clad in crisp white karategi with coloured belts and protective headgear, circled each other on the tatami, the floor covering used for practising Japanese martial arts.
Their movements were sharp and deliberate, each kick and block executed with precision and control to the cheers of an all-female audience.
At the final whistle, three minutes later, the two opponents shook hands and embraced.
The match was part of an annual regional tournament that saw 230 participants of all ages gathered in Tehran, lining up in formation before the competition began.
That AFP was accorded rare access to film and photograph a competition for women and girls was itself a sign of greater official openness.
“This sport is anything but violent” because it “promotes discipline”, said Samaneh Parsa, a 44-year-old mother who has been practising karate for five years with her daughter Helma and son Ilya.
“I have observed its positive influence on children’s behaviour,” she said at a club in southern Tehran, where AFP was granted a rare access to the prelude to the match.
For her, karate is a way to “release emotions” and “bring serenity during stressful times”, even though it was long frowned upon for women to practise the sport in Iran.
All martial arts were temporarily banned for women after the 1979 Islamic Revolution but were later reinstated under stricter dress code regulations.
– ‘Strong mindset’ –
As more women turn to karate, the sport has become a symbol of Iran’s changing society, where a young, urban generation is quietly challenging traditional gender roles and societal norms.
Last week, Iranian athlete Atousa Golshadnezhad won another gold medal at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Saudi Arabia.
Women in Iran have, in recent years, been pushing social boundaries more broadly — defying the Islamic Republic’s strict rules, including the mandatory dress code.
The trend has been particularly evident since the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, who had been arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating the dress code.
Afshin Torkpour, head of Kyokushin-Ryu karate in Iran, has similarly noted a shift in recent years, with women turning to sports that “were once considered violent”.
Women practising the sport are now as, and often more motivated, said Torkpour, noting that they develop “a strong mindset”.
Around 150,000 people practise karate in Iran across all genders, says Torkpour, who estimates that the actual figure could be much higher, up to two million.
At the Asian Championships, the national junior women’s under-21 team won 11 medals, including six golds.
In 2020, two Iranian karatekas participated in the Tokyo Olympics in Japan but did not win any medals.
For Azam Ahmadi, a woman in her 30s who has practised the sport since she was 12, karate teaches essential life skills: “If you fall, you have to get back up, keep going, and never give up.”
Mina Mahadi, vice-head of the women’s Kyokushin-Ryu karate section in Iran, says it also allows girls to “gain confidence” instead of them “saying yes to anything”.
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