With few exceptions, female fans have been banned from sports events in the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution and FIFA faced calls for the men's team to be banned from the 2022 World Cup over the issue.
Coach Branko Ivankovic insisted China's World Cup qualifying campaign was still alive despite back-to-back losses to Saudi Arabia and Australia over the last five days leaving them bottom of Asian qualifying Group C.
Al-Ittihad's Asian Champions League match with Iran's Sepahan was called off on Monday after the Saudi team refused to leave their dressing-room due to a statue of an assassinated Iranian general being placed at the entrance to the pitch.
It is only the second time in almost 40 years that Iranian women have been able to watch football in Tehran's Azadi stadium, Iran's biggest with 120,000 seats.
Female fans from other countries have previously been permitted to attend games at the Azadi Stadium, including Syrian women for a World Cup qualifier in September last year.
Indian football team's dismal run continued as they suffered a humiliating 0-4 loss to Iran in a Group D match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Initial 3,500 tickets for female fans were quickly sold out in about one hour and as a result, an additional 1,100 tickets were released for the match at the national Azadi Stadium.
Iran handed Cambodia a record-breaking 14-0 thrashing on an historic day in Tehran as goals flowed in World Cup qualifiers across Asia with Japan, South Korea and Australia securing comfortable wins on Thursday.
Kashima claimed their first continental title with a gutsy scoreless draw against Persepolis at the imposing Azadi Stadium
A female Iranian fan died earlier this month, after setting herself on fire to protest against her arrest for attending a match.
Iranian women have been banned from stadiums when men's teams have been playing, since just after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Five Iran soccer fans were trampled to death after a 2006 World Cup qualifier against Japan in Tehran.
Global football body FIFA has been urged by its own human rights advisory panel to give Iran a deadline for allowing women to watch football matches.
The semi-official news agency Tasnim said an unspecified number of women had entered the Azadi (Freedom) Stadium to watch Persepolis seek to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit against Japan's Kashima Antlers and claim their first continental crown.
The Iranian group OpenStadiums, which is campaigning for the right of women to attend sports fixtures in the Islamic Republic, said that some women were arrested near Azadi stadium on Thursday during the Esteghlal-Persepolis match.
Iran took a significant step towards qualifying for next year's World Cup finals with a 1-0 win over China on Tuesday that pushed Marcello Lippi's team closer to the brink of elimination.
Images and summary of all the World Cup 2022 qualifiers played across continents on Tuesday.
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The stability and pragmatism of Carlos Queiroz's seven-year reign has firmly established Iran's as Asia's number one team, but the nation will go to the World Cup hoping to advance for the first time to the knockout phase.
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