The only woman athlete Iran is sending to the Athens Olympics is under no illusions of winning a medal in her sport of

shooting. In fact, she admits the sport is not her real passion.

"If the dress code was not an issue, I would have preferred to stick with gymnastics. I've been doing that since the age of three," said Nassim Hassanpour, a petite 19-year-old.

With the Islamic republic viewing tight-fitting leotards as unsuitable public attire for women, Hassanpour is instead restricted to any sport that can be played wearing the obligatory headscarf and long coat. This rules out sports such as gymnastics, swimming, track and field athletics or beach volleyball.

Instead she chose shooting -- the air pistol on a 10 metre range. And in a gesture of slight rebellion,

Hassanpour may be covering up her frame in beige, rather than the ubiquitous black.

She never took shooting seriously, even though it was on the curriculum in the sporting high school she attended in her hometown of Tabriz, northwestern Iran.

"I am crazy about animals -- I have two pet dogs -- and I always associated shooting with hunting," she said while training in her run-down Tehran basement shooting range.

Eventually her talent was spotted three years ago, and her career launched. Hassanpour was eager to exploit the opportunity to travel abroad, something that many of her compatriots are unable to do due to financial and visa restrictions.

Rather than having a passion, Hassanpour says simply she has acquired a taste for the sport.

Still, facilities for women athletes are sorely lacking in Iran, she complains. And even when they do compete, competitions are held behind closed doors and away from the prying eyes of the media meaning

sponsorship deals are impossible to come by.

"I've spent all my savings and borrowed from my mother to get by. My monthly allowance of 1,350,000 rials (150 dollars) is four months overdue," she explained, adding that working as a private roller-blading coach has also helped top up her income.

Her record in the Asia Games was not quite enough to get her into Olympics, but she did win a wildcard for the air pistol competition, set to be held in Athens on August 15.

Women are allocated just 10 per cent of the national sporting budget.

Hassanpour does not expect to win a medal, and readily admits that she is too inexperienced.

"My real target is to win a medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I'm going to Athens to improve my record."

Staying at home and obviously frustrated, however, are other female Iranian athletes who pursue events such as canoeing, taekwondo and fencing. Unable to take part in international events, they failed when it came to Olympic qualifiers.

"They don't do well anyway because they are not competing in their favourite sports," explains Fatemeh Abolghasemi, a consultant in the Iranian women's sports federation.

"What they look for is a means to travel abroad."

"But even when they go abroad, they can hardly match their personal bests because they feel out of place and nervous because of their conspicuous attire," she added.

Facing such hurdles, the favoured Iranian women's sport is now apparently martial arts.

"Women are exploited and considered inferior, so they feel the need to learn self defence and feel secure in a male-dominated society," said Fatemeh Sotoodeh, a former karate fighter and advisor to the women's sporting federation.

Iranian athletes have in the past won 32 Olympic medals: 23 in wrestling, eight in weightlifting and one in taekwondo. But no Iranian women have ever stood on the Olympics podium, admits women's sports federation president ZahraAhmadipour.