Sitting in a lounge on the 24th floor of a hotel in central Buenos Aires, Gelareh Nazemi conveys a certain shyness, which stands in contrast to the confidence she demonstrates when dealing with matters on a futsal court. But, contrary to being interviewed, refereeing is a passion for Nazemi, who is the first Iranian to officiate at a FIFA-run futsal tournament. Nazemi, who is originally from Gilan, has been refereeing futsal since 2013.

"About 15 years back, I was playing football in Iran when my brother, who was a referee in the SuperLiga, urged me to give it a try. He said, “You can do it, you can be one of the first”. In Iran, the first group of female referees only got started 15 years ago.

There were seven or eight other female referees, but they all gave up because of how difficult it was. Their families or husbands didn’t accept it, they didn’t understand why they wanted to travel around just to referee. Today, things have changed, and there are three different futsal divisions just for women. There are 50 referees in the top division and about 100 across the whole country."