TEHERAN – On 6 and 7 December, 2014 the 3rd Scientific and Sport Seminar of the Iranian Sport Journalists Association (ISJA) took place in Teheran, Islamic Republic of Iran. Over 200 representatives and students from Universities, Media and Sport Federations followed the invitation to talk about the topic “Women, Sport and Media”. For the 3rd time Dr. Verena Burk, FISU Executive Committee Member and Chair of the FISU Media and Communication Committee visited Iran to attend and contribute to the seminar of ISJA which was organized by Mr. Manoucher Zandi (Honorary Life AIPS EC Member, Honorary Life General Secretary of ISJA) and Dr. Abdolhamid Ahmadi (Senior Advisor of Minister of Sport).
On the first day of the seminar Mrs. Robab Shahrian, Deputy Minister of Sport of the Islamic Republic of Iran opened the event and explained in which way the central government and the Ministry of Sport support sport for women in the country. Her speech was followed by different panel sessions and workshops in which Verena Burk made a presentation about “Women and Sport in the Mass Media” and contributed in a workshop titled “Women in International Sport Federations”.
On the second day of the conference Dr. Mahmoud Goudarzi, Minister of Sport, attended the seminar and followed discussions about the importance of women sport and the role of mass media in supporting the specific aims and activities for women in sport. Also workshops about the education of female sport journalists and the activities of UNESCO (presented by the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO and Esther Kuisch-Laroche, Director for UNESCO Teheran Cluster) were offered for the participants of the conference. Also present at and involved in the seminar was Mrs. Sima Limoochi, Member of the FISU Gender Equality Committee.
On Monday, 8 December, 2014 Verena Burk had a meeting with the representatives of the Iranian University Sport Federation to receive information about the activities of the FISU member federation. She also visited Alzahra University, the only Women University in Iran with 7,000 female students, to meet representatives and students of the university and discuss about topics like education of girls and women in Iran as well as the importance of women’s sport in the country.
(Source: Verena Burk, Chair Media & Communication Committee)