Zohreh Koudaei is 31 years old and it is the proud portera of the Iranian Women’s Soccer Team, who due to his masterful technique to save penalties was largely responsible for his national team qualifying for the first time in history to the Women’s Asian Cup to be played in India in 2022.
The game that gave the pass to Iran was played on September 25 against the Jordan women’s team, which was defined in a 4-2 penalty shootout in favor of the Iranians. In that game, the role that Zohreh played was very important, because saved two shots from 11 steps and that gave his team the advantage.
However, it turns out that the Jordan’s women’s team was not satisfied with the result and reported to the Asian Soccer Federation (AFC) than in the September game, the Iran national team placed a man in goal, so that demanded to put Koudaei through an embarrassing sex verification check.
Her teammates and coach defended her
This request was made by the Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, president of the Jordanian Soccer Federation, who sent a letter to express his discomfort over the “cheating” made by Iran, “it would be a serious problem if it is true (which is a man), please wake up AFC,” read in the tweet.
However, the Zohreh’s trainer, Maryam Irandoost, dismissed this accusation and said that it was only a pretext to cover up the defeat of the Jordanians. “They were the big favorite to rank, and when they lost, it was natural to seek relief under false pretenses and escape responsibility for their failure, “reports the Daily Mail.
The technical director of the Iranian Women’s Soccer Team detailed this weekend to the sports media Varzesh3 that all national representatives have been examined by doctors “in a matter of hormones” to avoid precisely this type of unfounded accusations against their athletes, since it is not the first time they have pointed out the Iranians for alleged cases of people of another gender in national teams or even doping.
These accusations have been made in the context that Iran is one of the countries where sex change operations are legal since the mid-80s. In addition, women’s soccer is very common in the country despite strict laws that prohibit women from watching men’s matches.
In the case of Zohreh Koudaei, It is not the first time that he represents his team, nor the first in which they accuse her of having another sex, since he has had to defend himself for several years against accusations – mainly from the media – that he is a man playing for a women’s soccer team, the Iranian news network Al Arabiya noted.
However, her own colleagues have defended her against these accusations: The Iranian athlete Kat khosrowyar He stated on Twitter that he has known Zohreh for many years and they practically shared a room for 8 years. “She is one of my closest friends, everyone should know her. In addition, she has always had talent saving penalties,” he said.
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