Iran’s nationwide soccer group returned to their war-torn nation after a number of of the gamers sought asylum in Australia.
Printed On 20 Mar 2026
Iranian authorities on Thursday gave the nationwide girls’s soccer group a hero’s welcome after their return from Australia, the place some had made after which withdrawn asylum claims, amid accusations Iran had pressured their households.
Six gamers and one backroom workers member who travelled to Australia for the Ladies’s Asian Cup sought asylum earlier this month after they prompted criticism from hardliners in Iran for failing to sing the nationwide anthem earlier than their first match.
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5 of them later modified their minds and returned dwelling together with the remainder of the group, together with captain Zahra Ghanbari, with their destiny prompting worldwide concern amid the US-Israel battle on Iran.
Activists have accused Iranian authorities of pressuring the ladies’s households, together with summoning their dad and mom for interrogation, whereas Tehran has alleged that Australia sought to drive the athletes to defect.
A number of thousand folks, many holding Iranian flags, turned out for the welcome ceremony on Thursday night in Valiasr Sq. in central Tehran, the place different pro-government rallies have taken place in latest weeks, state TV photographs confirmed.
“My Alternative. My Homeland,” learn a slogan on an enormous billboard on the sq. that confirmed the gamers of their nationwide equipment and obligatory hijabs saluting the Iranian flag.
Flanked by group members, Iranian soccer federation President Mehdi Taj mentioned on stage, “What is for certain is that these athletes are loyal to the homeland, flag, chief and revolution.”
Iranian authorities spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani, one of the vital high-profile girls in Iranian politics, advised the group members: “All Iranians had been ready for you; welcome to Iran.”
‘Threatening their households’
As onlookers cheered the gamers, big AI-generated photographs of the ladies had been projected on a display displaying them pledging loyalty to the Iranian flag towards a background of Iranian nationwide landmarks.
Two squad members have remained in Australia, however the the rest of the group, together with the 5 different girls who initially utilized for asylum, arrived in Iran on Wednesday after an extended journey dwelling by way of Malaysia, Oman and Turkiye.
Activists have accused Iranian authorities of pressuring these 5 girls into altering their minds by way of intelligence brokers placing stress on their households at dwelling.
“The regime in Iran began threatening their households and principally took their households hostage. Due to that, they had been pressured to withdraw their asylum and return to Iran,” Shiva Amini, a former Iranian nationwide soccer participant, who now lives in exile and campaigns on girls’s rights, wrote on social media.
However Farideh Shojaei, an Iranian soccer official who travelled to Australia, mentioned the gamers had been supplied “homes, automobiles, cash, guarantees of contracts with skilled golf equipment, in addition to humanitarian visas”.
“Luckily, the members of our group valued their nationwide identification above all else and turned these provides down,” she advised Iranian media.
Earlier than their opening recreation, the Iranian group fell silent because the nationwide anthem performed, though they later sang it in subsequent matches. An Iranian state TV presenter branded the gamers “wartime traitors”.
A central function of the welcome ceremony in Tehran was singing the nationwide anthem of the Islamic Republic, with gamers and officers becoming a member of in.
