In a speech at a women’s soccer conference in Milan in September, Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, told delegates that his organization could no longer wait.

But even as women gained access to the game, activists noted that FIFA appeared to have extracted no assurances from Iran that women would be allowed to attend future domestic matches. They also pointed out that Iranian officials had placed an arbitrary cap on the number of women who could attend Thursday’s game.

“Part of me is happy, but they have basically created a wall,” said Maryam Shojaei, the sister of Iran’s national team captain, Masoud Shojaei, and one of the leaders of the campaign to allow women into stadiums. “It’s not what we’ve been asking for. It’s not like everybody can go and sit freely with their brothers, fathers or husbands.”

While Azadi stadium holds more than 78,000 spectators, only a few thousand tickets were reserved for women. Those sold out almost as soon as they became available.

Despite the demand — and the size of the stadium, which remained largely empty on Thursday — Iranian officials made little effort to increase the allotment.

Once inside, the women were segregated from men by both empty stretches of seats and metal fencing erected around the sections reserved for women. Fans criticized the enclosure as a “cage,” and monitors kept watch on those inside. In one video posted online, a woman who had help up a sign paying tribute to Blue Girl was soon in a struggle with female police officers who had taken it down.