Two more players from Iran’s women’s national football team have requested asylum in Australia after five players were granted humanitarian visas on Monday due to security concerns on their return to the country for refusing to sing the national anthem.
The remaining players left Australia for Iran.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Football fans and government bodies began expressing concern for the team’s well-being after its members were labeled “wartime traitors” on Iranian state television for refusing to sing the national anthem at an Asian Cup match.
The Iranian team’s campaign in the Australian-based tournament began just when the United States and Israel launched air strikes against Iran, killing the Islamic republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian players boarded a flight to Sydney, departing from the city of Gold Coast, in the northeast of the country, on Tuesday afternoon (10), before returning home.
A group of Iranians living in Australia gathered to protest against the Iranian government and surrounded the athletes’ bus in Gold Coast as they left the hotel heading to the airport. Many others also showed up at Sydney Airport as the players were transferred to the international terminal.
Iran’s attorney general’s office said Tuesday that the remaining members of the team have been invited to return to the country “with peace and confidence,” Iranian media reported.
US President Donald Trump praised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for allowing the players to remain in the country, saying on social media that the US was ready to take them in if Australia did not.
According to Zaki Haidari, an activist at Amnesty International, the athletes risk being persecuted if they return to their country.
“It is likely that some of them have already seen their families threatened,” Haidari added.
The Iran team competed in the women’s Asian Cup for the first time in 2022, in India. The players have become national heroes in a country where women’s rights are severely limited.
