{"id":231782,"date":"2026-03-06T02:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T02:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/06\/wartime-traitors-asylum-call-for-iran-women-in-imminent-danger-after-brave-aussie-anthem-act\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T02:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T02:55:00","slug":"wartime-traitors-asylum-call-for-iran-women-in-imminent-danger-after-brave-aussie-anthem-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/06\/wartime-traitors-asylum-call-for-iran-women-in-imminent-danger-after-brave-aussie-anthem-act\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wartime traitors\u2019: Asylum call for Iran women \u2018in imminent danger\u2019 after brave Aussie anthem act"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Iran\u2019s players have been labelled \u201cwartime traitors\u201d after choosing not to sing the national anthem ahead of their Women\u2019s Asia Cup tournament opener amid calls for Australian government to provide immediate asylum and protection for the athletes.<\/p>\n

When Iran faced South Korea in Robina on Monday, their players had stood motionless as an apparent silent protest against the Islamic Republic\u2019s regime, two days after the US and Israel had begun a war against their country.<\/p>\n

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After that match, Iran coach Marziyeh Jafari said her team had \u201cso much concern\u201d about their families at home as the conflict raged and that players felt \u201cfully disconnected\u201d from their loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so happy that Iranian Australians here support us,\u201d she told Australian media on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we have so much concern for our families and our loved ones and all other people inside our country, which we are fully disconnected from.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, we are coming to play football professionally, and we will do our best to concentrate on the match ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before Thursday\u2019s defeat to Australia in the Women\u2019s Asia Cup on the Gold Coast<\/a>, all the Iranian players saluted and sang the anthem on Queensland\u2019s Gold Coast, with suggestions they were instructed to do so.<\/p>\n

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Iran’s players salute during the national anthem. Photo by Izhar KHAN \/ AFP<\/span>Source: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely obvious that the Islamic Republic\u2019s regime, and the security team which is with the players in Australia, forced them to sing and do the military salute,\u201d Alireza Mohebbi, the Australia-based correspondent for Iran International TV, told ABC News<\/i>.<\/p>\n

ABC presenter Tracey Holmes tweeted: \u201cJust like the men\u2019s team at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the women\u2019s team from Iran are singing the national anthem \u2018under instruction\u2019 for game two, after refusing to sing in game one; not just singing, but saluting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the match, they were easily beaten 4-0 by host nation Australia, who joined South Korea in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

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“Our heart goes out to them” | 01:28<\/p>\n

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In a video shared to Twitter, Iranian state TV presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi accused the national women\u2019s football squad of \u201cdishonour and betrayal\u201d for their apparent silent protest, declaring they \u201cmust be dealt with\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me just say one thing: traitors during wartime must be dealt with more severely,\u201d Shahbazi said, according to a social media translation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who takes a step against the country under war conditions must be dealt with more severely.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike this matter of our women\u2019s football team not singing the national anthem, and that photo that was published and so on, which I won\u2019t get into. These people must be dealt with more severely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is no longer just a symbolic protest move or the like. In a war situation, in this state of affairs, where they strike and martyr students and seven-to-eight-year-old girls in schools, where they attack the neonatal ward of a hospital, where they hit stadiums.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor you to go there and not sing the national anthem; this is the pinnacle of dishonour and lack of patriotism. Both the people and the officials should treat these individuals as wartime traitors, not as if they just had a protest or performed a symbolic act. The stigma of dishonour and betrayal must remain on their foreheads, and separately they must be dealt with properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, political analyst Ali Bornaei warned the Australian government that the team\u2019s lives were \u201cin imminent danger\u201d, acknowledging that treason was a capital offence punishable by death in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese athletes face arbitrary detention and execution if forced to return,\u201d Bornaei tweeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urgently call on the Australian government to provide immediate asylum and protection for these brave women. Australia must not allow them to be sent back to a regime that views a silent protest as a crime worthy of the gallows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran will next face the Philippines on the Gold Coast on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s players have been labelled \u201cwartime traitors\u201d after choosing not to sing the national anthem ahead of their Women\u2019s Asia Cup tournament opener amid calls for Australian government to provide immediate asylum and protection for the athletes. When Iran faced South Korea in Robina on Monday, their players had stood motionless as an apparent silent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-231782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}