A fifth player from Iran’s women’s soccer team has withdrawn her asylum claim in Australia and has started returning home from Malaysia along with four others. Australia granted humanitarian visas to the team’s players and one support staff, fearing possible persecution at home.
Concerns for their safety were raised after the players did not sing their national anthem at a Women’s Asian Cup match. Some took it as a protest gesture.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said afterwards: “When these players were silent at the start of their first game in Australia, that silence was heard like a roar around the world. We responded by saying the invitation is here. You can be safe in Australia.”
Seventeen days after the start of the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran, five players on the women’s soccer team have decided to return to their homeland, Australian media reported.
They joined the rest of the team in Kuala Lumpur, where the team had been staying since departing Sydney last week, with only two remaining in Australia.
While the Australian government says it respects the decision of the Iranian women’s football team, it also continues to support the latter.
Australian Deputy Foreign Minister 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 who choose to return. And we continue to offer support to the two who remain,” Thistlethwaite said.
The Asian Football Confederation said earlier on Monday that the team would seek to travel to another country from Malaysia as it could not immediately return to Tehran due to the war in the Middle East.
AFC Windsor general secretary John said: “They’re just waiting for flight connections. When they’re flying… where, they have to tell us.”
On reports that the footballers’ families were actually under pressure from the Iranian authorities to force their return, Windsor John said: “We’ve spoken to the team officials. We’ve spoken to the coaches, the head of delegation. They’re actually in good spirits.”
“I have met them personally. They are not demotivated, nor did they seem scared.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reacted to the players returning from Australia to their homeland, saying they were returning “to the warm embrace of their family and homeland”, describing their return as a failure of what it called US-Australian political efforts.
The Iranian team’s Asian Cup campaign began just as the United States and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran, killing the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They were eliminated from the tournament a week ago.
US President Donald Trump praised Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for allowing the women to stay and said on social media that the United States was prepared to take the players if Australia did not.
