Katayoun Khosrowyar; The Iranian Coach on A Mission
Katayoun Khosrowyar is best known for making history as the first Iranian woman to carry a FIFA ‘A’ coaching license. Having spent the last decade changing the stigma attached to female football with a mission to encourage millions of girls to play worldwide. I spoke with Khosrowyar (known to friends and family as Kat) over the phone to discuss her journey from pitch to public speaking, getting to know the woman who is set to change history for females through football.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by her Iranian Grandma and Father - both of whom were professional athletes in their own rights - Khosrowyar tells me how she was surrounded by a community that encouraged sport and facilitated her football career from a young age. Travelling from state to state across the US, and participating in competitions with the hope to play at a national level, Khosrowyar had no idea that this dream would come true on a pitch halfway across the world. “I was given a fortunate hand of cards to play. Never in this timeline did I think I’d be moving to Iran, a country that was so foreign to me.”
It was during Khosrowyar’s first family holiday to Iran, aged 16, that she was scouted and asked to join the Iranian women’s national team (the first since the revolution began in the Seventies). Despite not knowing the language, Khosrowyar’s upbringing and determination to strive for sporting success resulted in her relocating to start a whole new life in Tehran. “When I arrived there was no football team, no pitches or coaches, nothing. Then within a few months, there was a national team and all the levels in between - grassroots tournaments, FIFA supporting Iranian women to participate in competitions, all these gyms started opening up like mushrooms. It was a great moment to be a witness of, especially for female soccer players and athletes.” Khosrowyar goes onto explain how “the cool thing about Iran is that, before the revolution, you had all these female sportswomen and athletes. So after the revolution those women were still there, being able to help the new kids kick off and start those sports again. It took 30 years before such teams were given permission to be created, but when it came back, it came back pretty strong.”
For Khosrowyar, her move from the US to play for Iran came with many adjustments and new rules including the mandatory regulation for women to wear the hijab. For Khosrowyar, seeing girls from Islamic countries wearing variations of the football kit so as to cover their legs and arms was not unfamiliar. However, being in Iran, “it was a different experience. [As a woman], if you don’t abide by the law and wear a hijab then you don’t play football”. Under Iran's Islamic law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair in public, and violators are at risk of being publicly admonished, fined or arrested. This regulation led to a poignant and pivotal moment in Khosrowyar’s career when, as a member of the Iranian Women’s Team, they got through to the second round of the Olympic qualifications in 2011. Minutes before the squad were due to play their next match, a FIFA representative informed them that they had been disqualified due to the fact that they were wearing the hijab. This oppressive ruling, and heartbreaking moment, led Khosrowyar to lead an effective campaign called Let Us Play, encouraging FIFA to acknowledge and accept women choosing to wear the hijab while playing football. In 2014, the campaign finally reached its goal of FIFA allowing 'head covering for religious reasons'; a life changing moment for many female footballers across the world.
““Growing up, my Father, as a Middle Eastern man, was very open. He helped me find my personality, and played a huge role in my development as an athlete.””
Alongside this battle, Khosrowyar focused her attention on tailoring the hijab and successfully changing the design and material so as to make it a more comfortable experience to play in. “I was able to get into the biomechanical side of fashion so as to make the hijab less tight around the neck, supportive around the ears, and to have a cooling system.” Apace with these liberating adaptations came Khosrowyar’s desire to change other teams' perceptions of them. “With most opponents, they’d see us warm up and think “poor things having to wear the hijab”. Automatically they have this mindset that we were weak and unable to play. This worked in our favour because we’d then go out and smash it! We’d change the perception one team at a time, one country at a time.”
By the age of 26, Khosrowyar had transitioned from being a player to a coach and started scouting out talent throughout the region. She patiently explains how wearing the hijab “became a symbolic movement for me - it wasn’t a matter of being forced, it was more about saying I’m doing this to show that it’s possible for a couple of other hundred women to play. Because the more women who get involved, the better it is for me to find talent as a coach.” This act has resulted in Khosrowyar redefining the game for women across the country, working at every level to elevate the professionality of her own teams. In doing so she is reestablishing opportunities for females in Iran, and helping them know that “no one will look at them as hijab wearing soccer players, they’re just going to look at them as soccer players.”
When discussing the impact of being raised by two athletes, Khosrowyar notes how her approach to training is reflective of her own upbringing, “I am a strict coach, I demand a lot but I do it in a way where the player wants to give 100%, rather than being forced to. We’ll have three tough days and then on the fourth day we’ll have fun. You need to have that mental break so that you can perform better, because training is tough, mentally and physically”. For Khosrowyar, football is a way of “uncovering the top potential of women in your country”, recognising how a woman showing leadership on the pitch “can also be a leader in different contexts, such as a sports diplomat or a speaker at the UN”, something which Khosrowyar is a beautiful example of. She is sincere when stating that football also offers more women the chance to have healthier lifestyles and develop communication skills, both at home and internationally. “Football is a diplomatic tool, bringing communities and countries who, on paper, are sworn enemies [such as the US and Iran], together”. Khosrowyar enthusiastically tells me how football has also disrupted the assigned gender roles within Iran, having witnessed Iranian men and women discuss teams and tactical structure “so rather than “this is my wife, she cooks and cleans”, they’re sitting at home having heated discussions about football. It's so refreshing to hear and experience, to get the football vocabulary within the mindsets of women.”
““The football pitch is more than the diameters, the width and length. It’s where you’re able to learn attributes about being professional, how to stand out from the crowd, and be a leader. It gives you all elements of life and I’m here to master it.””
It is clear that for Khosrowyar, football has been a tool for personal development, thanking the sport for teaching her how to defend herself as a person, to move forward and ‘attack’. It’s a sentimental moment when Khosrowyar describes the football pitch as being a way of life, “its civilisation, its where culture is, it's where you're able to learn attributes about being professional, a diplomat, an educator, how to stand out from the crowd, and be a leader”. All traits which are undoubtedly evident within the achievements of Khosrowyar’s life so far. Acting on the advice of her mentors to always have a back up plan in case of injury, Khosrowyar made sure to put as much focus on her academic education growing up as her football career by studying engineering. “It was never either or, it was, I’m going to excel at both. I’ll keep up the grades while I travel all over the world”. Something which she has committed to today by securing a job in the business side of engineering alongside coaching football, allowing her “to make money to spend on building academies, foundations for girls and providing equipment for females in other countries”.
This commitment, drive and determination reflects the unquestionable support that Khosrowyar shows for the development of female soccer players, explaining how she’s shifting gears to reach bigger goals. “I need women around the world to come together to help these athletes get to a higher professional level, to help make the next generation of players stronger than the previous generation because I haven’t seen a change in technical and tactical abilities yet. I want to harness everyone’s strengths and to help them move forward in that way.” Laughing, Khosrowyar explains “As an Iranian woman, we want things right now, yesterday!”, an attribute of her character that has undeniably helped her move mountains for the global female sports communities. When asking Khosrowyar about her plans for the future she states “In time, I hope to create something more sustainable within women’s soccer, so that I can help millions rather than just a couple of hundred ”. I don’t doubt her for a minute, because if any one will d o it, it’ll be Khosrowyar.
Follow Katayoun Khosrowyar on Twitter here and Instagram @kat.khosro
Interview & Words: Bethany Burgoyne
