The wheels of theocracy grind slowly. Given that Iran's highest clerics had spent 38 years imposing a blanket ban on women attending football matches, they were never likely to disavow all remnants of the past in the space of a single World Cup qualifier.
Even so, their decision to admit a smattering of female fans into Tehran's Azadi Stadium for the national team's 14-0 win over Cambodia Thursday, presented by Fifa as a line-in-the-sand moment, came with troubling caveats.
