There have been celebrations in Tehran after Iran’s men’s volleyball team defeated the United States for the second time in a week .

Their first victory was on Friday .

While the stadium was packed with more than 12-thousand spectators, as usual Iranian women were banned from attending the match although foreign females were allowed in to support their national side.

The ban which has been in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, came to worldwide attention last year over the detention of an Iranian-British woman, who tried to attend a men’s volleyball match against Italy.

Ghoncheh Ghavami was sentenced to a year in prison for “propagating against the ruling system”, but was freed on bail in November pending an appeal.