Iran's state broadcaster censored Sunday’s Premier League game between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United to avoid showing assistant referee Sian Massey-Ellis - because she was wearing shorts.
The Islamic Republic’s state broadcaster cut away from the action more than 100 times during the encounter - which resulted in a 3-1 win for United.
According to an Iranian civil rights group, the decision to repeatedly switch away was so viewers would not see the bare legs of match official Massey-Ellis - widely regarded as one of the Premier League's best assistant referees.
Hard-line Iranian authorities do not allow a woman with her hair uncovered and bare knees to be shown on state-run TV channels.
My Stealthy Freedom, a group that campaigns against discriminatory gender laws within Iran, wrote: “The television censors were rattled by the presence of a female referee in shorts.
"Their solution was to cut away from the action to views of London’s backstreets, which made a mockery of the game.
“At the end of the game, one of the commentators joked that he hoped the viewers enjoyed the geographic show.
“Censorship is in the DNA of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We should not normalise this practice. This is not our culture.
"This is the ideology of a repressive regime.”
In 2019, German media reported Iranian state broadcaster IRIB cancelled a screening of Bayern Munich's win over Augsburg because the referee in charge was a woman, Bibiana Steinhaus.
And segments of the 2018 World Cup draw broadcast were censored in Iran because authorities decided the clothing of co-host Maria Komandnaya – who appeared alongside Gary Lineker – was too revealing.
During the 2014 draw ceremony, Iranian TV cut out many parts of the broadcast because of the clothing worn by Brazilian TV host Fernanda Lima.
Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.
