In a first, Iran has allowed 500 women to enter the stadium to watch men's Volleyball World League Games that will be held in Tehran on 19 June.
Iranian authorities, however, are afraid of a showdown with the hardliners and are planning to deploy several layers of security.
Security personnel related to the interior ministry as well as the sports and youth ministry would ensure a tight security cover around the stadium with the help of Tehran police during the finals of the FIVB World League games.
Fatemeh Salimi, an official from Tehran Provincial Sports and Youth Department, told the Iran Front Page that his office is making security arrangements for accommodating 500 women during the men's volleyball match.
He noted that the security has been heightened given the sensitive nature of the event, which is a first in the country. According to NBC, a limited number of women, mainly families of players, will be allowed into the stadium for the World League games.
"I guess a limited number of women, mainly families of national team players, will watch the (coming) volleyball games," vice president for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi, part of the Cabinet of moderate President Hassan Rouhani told the Associated Press.
Rouhani, who is a reformist politician, believes it is a good start for the largely conservative country.
"If it practically happens a few times, the concerns [raised by Islamic hardliners] will be completely removed and it will be proven that allowing women to watch men's sports matches is not problematic," Molaverdi added.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, women generally have been banned from entering the stadium for watching any men's sports event.
Senior Iranian clerics have been opposing the move to allow women into the stadium as the sportsmen wear revealing clothes and the fans at times shout obscene chants.
In April, Iran had finally released an Iranian-British woman who was jailed in Tehran for taking part in a protest against a ban on women attending some men's sporting events.
Ghoncheh Ghavami was under arrest for almost 10 months before she was released in April. Ghavami was arrested in June 2014 outside Tehran's Azadi Stadium, where she and others were demanding that women be allowed into the stadium to watch a volleyball match between Iran and Italy, Reuters had reported.
