Eight members of Iran's women's soccer team are actually men, Iranian news website Young Journalists Club reports.
The eight players, who have not been named, "have been playing with Iran’s female team without completing sex change operations," Mojtabi Sharifi told the site, according to
The Telegraph.
The team plays wearing hijab headscarfs, long-sleeved shirts and tracksuit pants, The Telegraph notes.
It is not the first time the team has been the subject of controversy. Iran's governing body for the sport introduced random checks in 2014 when it was learned that four players on the national team either were men who not completed sex-change operations or suffered from sexual development disorders.
In 2010, questions were raised about whether the goalkeeper was really a woman.
Despite rules against homosexuality in Iran, sex-change operations have been legal since 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a religious fatwa allowing them.
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