Cold Sweat

Afrooz is the captain of the Iranian National Futsal Team, a women’s indoor soccer team. A long-held dream to play the Asian Games final is shattered when Afrooz’ husband imposes a travel restriction on her. Furious, Afrooz stands up against the patriarchal Iranian system. But will she win this battle?

Iranian Afrooz pursues a career as a professional football player, and she has made a fair bit of progress towards achieving that goal as captain of the National Futsal Team. Her dreams come true when she and her teammates reach the final of the Asian Games. The team plans to travel to Malaysia, but as Afrooz is about to board the plane, she is told that she is not allowed to leave the country. Her husband, who she has lived separated from for more than a year, has imposed a travel restriction on her.

So Afrooz stays behind, frustrated, while the rest of the team flies off. She does everything she can to obtain the right to leave the country, even seeking legal redress. But this battle seems virtually impossible to win in the patriarchal Iranian society, where the legal system is mainly conceived to benefit men and where women barely have any rights.