A fifth player from the Iranian women’s soccer team has withdrawn her claim for asylum in Australia and has begun making her way back home from Malaysia along with four others. Australia had granted humanitarian visas to the team players and one support staff, fearing possible persecution back home.
The concerns over their safety emerged after the players did not sing their national anthem at a women’s Asian Cup match. It was taken as a gesture of protest by some.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke had then said, “When those players were silent at the start of their first match in Australia, that silence was heard as a roar all around the world. We responded by saying, the invitation is there. In Australia you can be safe.”
Seventeen days after the start of the conflict between the United States-Israel and Iran, five of the women’s soccer team players have decided to return to their homeland, the Australian media has reported.
They joined the rest of the squad in Kuala Lumpur where the team had been staying since departing from Sydney last week, with just two remaining in Australia.
While the Australian government says it respects the decision of the Iranian women’s soccer team, but also continues to support the other.
Australian Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Matt Thistlethwaite told Sky News that “this is a very complex situation.”
“These are deeply personal decisions, and the government respects the decisions of those that have chosen to return. And we continue to offer support to the two that are remaining,” Thistlethwaite said.
The Asian Football Confederation said earlier on Monday the squad would seek to travel to another country from Malaysia as it cannot immediately return to Tehran due to the war in the Middle East.
AFC General Secretary Windsor John said, “They are just waiting for the flight connections. When they are going… where to, they have to tell us.”
On the reports that the families of the soccer players were actually under pressure from the Iranian authorities forcing their return, Windsor John said, “We have spoken to the team officials. We have spoken to the coaches, the head of delegation. They are actually in high spirits.”
“I personally met them. They are not demotivated, or they didn’t look afraid.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reacted to the players returning to their homeland from Australia and said they were coming back “to the warm embrace of their family and homeland,” describing their return as a failure of what it called an American-Australian political effort.
The Iranian team’s campaign in the Asian Cup started just as the United States and Israel launched air strikes on Iran, killing the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They were eliminated from the tournament a week ago.
US President Donald Trump had praised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for allowing the women to stay, saying on social media the United States was ready to take the players if Australia did not.
