Women's paintball in Iran

Women's paintball in Iran includes women's participation in recreational paintball, domestic leagues, national championships and international tournaments. A women's team was documented in published photographs in 2005, and the Iran Paintball Association recorded the opening round of a national women's league in December 2011.[1][2]

Domestic competition has included three-player team events, individual competitions and categories using mechanical and electronic markers. Internationally, Datis Girls competed in Division 3 at World Cup Asia in 2012 and 2013.[3][4]

History

Early participation

On 5 October 2005, The Iranian published a photographic feature entitled "Women's paintball team in Iran", credited to Hamid Nikpour. The feature provides contemporary evidence of organised women's participation, although its publication date does not establish when the team was founded.[1]

On 4 February 2007, BBC Persian published an interview featuring Babak Esmaeili and Behnaz Foroutan, identified respectively as men's and women's paintball team captains. Foroutan described taking up the sport after encountering it through her husband. The interview explicitly stated that women's competitions were being held in Iran.[5]

National league, 2011–2012

The Iran Paintball Association published women's league entry conditions in November 2011. These required team registration, identification cards and compliance with INPL Division 2 rules. The rules reference did not place the women's teams within the men's second-division standings.[6]

The association's results identify Babolsar, Mazandaran Province, as the host of the first women's round, held alongside the second men's round from 14 to 16 December 2011. Datis finished first, Javidan second and the host team Roham Babolsar third.[2]

An association announcement in December 2011 appointed Leila Niyam to lead the national women's paintball committee and credited her involvement in launching the women's league.[7]

On 27 February 2012, Planet Eclipse reported that Datis Girls had won the women's cup and been crowned champions for the Iranian calendar year 1390. The report described an INPL event involving 26 teams across three divisions, one of which was a dedicated women's bracket. The total was for the combined event, rather than the women's competition alone.[8]

On 17 May 2012, the opening women's league round of the Iranian calendar year 1391 took place in Tehran. Seven teams represented Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, Isfahan and East Azerbaijan provinces. Datis Alborz won, followed by Javidan Tehran and Titan Qazvin.[9]

Provincial and three-player competition, 2013–2014

Women's competition also took place at provincial level. An Isfahan amateur event at Saital in July 2013 included five women's teams alongside nine men's teams. Tandis won the women's competition.[10]

For 1393, the association announced a women's programme using three players on the field, with three reserves permitted and three rounds planned under INPL rules.[11]

The opening event took place in Karaj on 18 April 2014 with six teams. Ariaman One won, followed by Datis, Ariaman Two, Amertat, Adrenaline and Griffin.[12]

Organisation and university participation, 2016–2017

Contemporary interviews describe difficulties in sustaining organised women's competition. In February 2016, Hamid Nikpour told the Young Journalists Club that the association had not managed to organise women's competition that year, citing venue and participation difficulties. In April, women's official Leila Niyam discussed domestic activity but identified weak coordination in attending competitions as a problem.[13][14]

University records provide a separate strand of women's participation. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad's sports channel published notices and reports concerning female students' paintball competition in December 2016 and January 2017.[15]

In December 2017, the university channel published women's podium groups from its public-sport festival, listing five players in each of the top three groups. These were university competition results, distinct from national league standings.[16]

IWPL and Paintball for All

Electronic competition

A Hamshahri report published on 16 December 2018 identified the second event of the national women's league using the initials IWPL. It distinguished that competition from Paintball for All (PFA), with electronic and mechanical events reported separately.[3]

The electronic three-player placings were:

Position	Team
1st	Datis
2nd	Griffin
3rd	Ariaman
4th	Kartal

Original PFA Media posts published on 1 December 2018 identify the second IWPL event as an electronic-marker competition and independently confirm the top three.[17]

Mechanical competition and the 1397 season

PFA also organised women's mechanical-marker competitions in team and individual formats.

At the second women's round, held on 27 July 2018, Shahab One won the mechanical three-player competition ahead of Shahab Three and Shahab Two. Raheleh Hajian won the individual competition, followed by Mahdieh Darkhah and Mobina Pourmousa.[18]

At the third round on 28 September 2018, Shahab One again won the three-player competition, followed by Shahab Three and Shahab Four. A separate two-player competition placed Shahab Three first, Shahab One second and Shahab Two third.[19]

The fifth and final round took place on 25 January 2019 and also served as the women's national championship in the mechanical class. Six three-player teams and 21 individual competitors represented Tehran, Golestan, Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan provinces.[20]

Shahab Golestan won the final-round team competition, followed by Shahid Nikpasand vocational school and Shahab One. Raheleh Hajian won the individual event, followed by Mozhdeh Taghipour and Zohreh Alimohammadi.[20]

The overall league standings across five rounds differed from the final-round results:

Position	Three-player mechanical team	Individual mechanical player
1st	Shahab One	Raheleh Hajian
2nd	Shahab Three	Mahdieh Darkhah
3rd	Shahab Two	Mahsa Moradi

These were the PFA mechanical season standings, rather than an IWPL electronic championship table.[20]

Competition in 1398

The opening national women's PFA round of 1398 took place on 26 July 2019 at Takhti Stadium, Tehran. Shahab One won the mechanical three-player competition ahead of Shahab Three and Shahab Two. Raheleh Hajian won the individual mechanical event, followed by Mahdieh Darkhah and Fatemeh Fahim.[21]

At the fourth national round on 6 February 2020, also at Takhti Stadium, the team podiums were:[22][23]

Position	Mechanical three-player	Electronic three-player
1st	Shahab	Datis Tehran
2nd	Hyrcania One	Datis Shemiranat
3rd	Hyrcania Two	Number One

Raheleh Hajian won the individual mechanical competition, followed by Hanieh Abedi and Maryam Kordi. Pardis Farnezhad won the individual electronic competition, followed by Mozhdeh Bashiri and Nahid Kelishadi.[22][23]

Competition in the 2020s

On 27 December 2023, Bandar Abbas hosted the fourth round of the women's electronic three-player league, with six teams competing. IRIB reported Singo Elite of Hormozgan as league champion with 377 points.[24]

The reported leading standings were:

Position	Team	Points
1st	Singo Elite	377
2nd	Belona, Rasht	315
3rd	Singo Persian Gulf	215

International competition

Datis Girls, associated with the Datis organisation, competed at consecutive World Cup Asia tournaments in Langkawi, Malaysia.[4][8]

PBLeagues records the following results:[4]

Dates	Tournament	Division	Result
9–11 November 2012	World Cup Asia	Division 3	44th of 46
15–17 November 2013	NAZA World Cup Asia	Division 3	25th of 54

These appearances were in Division 3 rather than a separate women's tournament division.

References

External links