TEHRAN: A ban on women attending a volleyball match with the United States is reviving a fierce debate in Iran, with some accusing the government of backing down to conservatives.

The Volleyball World League men’s matches against the United States in Tehran on Friday and Sunday are generating huge excitement here, especially given the two countries’ difficult relations after 35 years without diplomatic ties. When the government announced this month that some women would be allowed at the matches despite a long ban on attending men’s sporting events, many female fans were hopeful.

But local media reports have since said that only 200 of the 12,000 seats in the arena at Tehran’s Azadi sport complex will be reserved for women.

This has sparked accusations that — despite promises of increased openness — Iranian authorities are still not willing to take on the country’s hardliners. Many women’s rights activists have taken to social media to voice their frustration, posting on Twitter under the hashtag #letwomengotostadium. “Really, what’s wrong with women being in stadiums?” one asked, while another wrote: “So they just lied that they would let women in the #volleyball stadium? Is that how we work?”

Rules prohibiting women’s access to stadiums have been in place since Iran’s revolution of 1979, officially to protect them from obscene behaviour among male fans. The government of President Hassan Rouhani, despite opposition from religious conservatives, has been trying to relax the restrictions. Recently, some women watched a male basketball match from a cordoned-off section.

The issue of gender at sporting events garnered attention after the arrest last summer of a British-Iranian law graduate, Ghoncheh Ghavami, who took part in a protest outside a stadium before a male volleyball match. Jailed for five months before being released on bail, she was later sentenced to a year in prison for propaganda against the regime and for having contacts with opposition groups. An appeals court eventually dropped other charges.