- Iranian women's football team refused to sing their national anthem at AFC Asian Cup match in Australia
- Five players sought asylum in Australia amid political tensions and protests against Tehran regime
- Players communicated silently with supporters using emojis and SOS signs during matches
The Iranian women's football team is nicknamed 'Shirzanan', meaning lionesses in Persian. The events of the past week have shown why. On March 2, as the conflict spiralled in the Middle East after the US and Israel bombed Iran, the South Korean women's football team defeated Iran 3-0 in the AFC Asian Women's Cup in Australia. But the 'lionesses' did not lose. In fact, they had scored a major win even before the match began in their refusal to sing their country's national anthem.
The Iranian women's football team refused to sing the national anthem before their March 2 match
When The World Took Note
On March 2, the Iranian women's football team took on South Korea at the Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast. Before the play-off, the Iranian national anthem was played, but none of its players sang along. This silence was a loud message. The regime in Tehran, infamous for imposing strict social codes for women, has long faced protests within. And now, it was at war. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the regime's Supreme Leader, was dead. The Iranian women footballers were sending a message to the regime: they were not scared. And the world was listening to their silent, yet deafening, cries of protest.
The response was predictable. Mohammad Reza Shahbazi, an Iranian state television presenter, described the footballers as "wartime traitors" who must be "dealt with more severely". The dice had been cast.
What Happened Behind The Scenes
The team's refusal to sing the national anthem was the first sign that something was in the works. According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald, the players put on a calm front since arriving in Australia. "They did only mandatory media and only discussed football matters, and they joked and laughed in training on the Gold Coast," the report said.
But the wheels had been set in motion. The Iranian diaspora in Australia was going all out to ensure asylum for the players. They knew they had a chance as long as they were on Australian soil.
The players were under close watch. They were lodged in a five-star hotel, the RACV Royal Pines Resort, and their supporters were looking for ways to get through, to let them know their options.
Love Emojis, And SOS Signs
While approaching the players in the hotel or during training was fraught with risks, social media opened up a window of hope. Human rights advocates send DMs to the players' Instagram accounts, the Herald reported. The advocates knew the players would be scared to type out a response. But they responded with love heart emojis, and their supporters knew they were reading the messages, and at least some of them were willing to try and break free.
On Sunday, six days after their silent protest, the Iranian team played its final match against the Philippines and lost 2-0. As the team bus rolled out of the stadium, the Iranian players' supporters flashed the SOS symbol. From inside the bus, one of the players appeared to respond with an SOS sign, and another formed a love heart.
The Breakthrough
The Herald has reported that by Monday evening, five players had made a decision: Captain Zahra Ghanbari (34), Fatemeh Pasandideh (21), Zahra Sarbali (32), Atefeh Ramezanizadeh (33) and Mona Hamoudi (32). A source familiar with the escape operation told The Herald that it was an "orderly" affair aided by the heavy presence of police officers.
"There was no altercation, no chaos. There are forces of control that disappear once the AFP show up and say, 'Do you want to come with us?' " the source said.
The five players were shifted to a safehouse where Tony Burke, the Australian Home Minister, met them. The Herald report says all of this unfolded hours before US President Donald Trump took to social media and demanded that Australia offer asylum to the players. By 1.30 am (local time) on Tuesday, the Home Minister had given the five players humanitarian visas. Later, another team member, Mohaddesh Zolfi, and support staffer Zahra Soltan Moshkehkar joined the five players. Latest reports, however, say Zolfi has changed her mind and would return to Iran.
The rest of the Iranian team has left Australia
Why The Others Left
The Iranian women's football team refused to sing the national anthem together. Why then did some seek asylum, while others returned? The answer, reports say, is family. Many players felt they must go back home, or the regime would target their near and dear ones for the footballers' defiance.
In fact, at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Iran men's national team had refused to sing the national anthem before their match against England. The team was showing solidarity with the protests back home in the aftermath of the custodial death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini. Amini was alleged to have breached the strict dress code, and Iran's notorious morality police had detained her. The regime was furious with the football team's defiance on a world stage. They were reportedly threatened with imprisonment and torture of family members if they did not fall in line in their next match against Wales. They did.
A New Life
Australian authorities have said that they ensured that there was no pressure on the women. "What we made sure of was that there was no rushing, there was no pressure. Everything was about ensuring the dignity for those individuals to make a choice," he told a media briefing. Besides asylum, the five women footballers have also started receiving offers from Australian clubs.
Iranian authorities, meanwhile, have reacted strongly. Mehdi Taj, the president of the Iranian football federation, has claimed the players are being held "hostage". Taj referred to the airstrike in Minab that left over a hundred schoolchildren dead. Targeting Trump, he said,
"First, he martyrs our girls in Minab, 160 of them, and now he's holding our girls hostage. Our women's team in Australia was leaving Sydney to head to Kuala Lumpur. Right at the gate, they completely stopped them. Trump had threatened Australia that if they didn't give asylum to Iranian players, the US would," he said.
