5 Iranian female soccer players flee hotel, seek asylum in Australia, says exiled crown prince

Five members of Iran’s national women’s soccer team have left their hotel in Australia to seek asylum in the country, according to Iran’s opposition and exiled prince Reza Pahlavi. The Sydney Morning Herald also said the women – branded traitors by Iranian state television at the weekend for refusing to sing their national anthem before the match – had fled the hotel and were planning to seek asylum in Australia.

Australian authorities have been urged to help Iran’s team players after their exit from the Asian Cup, due to fears of what might happen to them if they fly home as planned during the day in progress. US-Israel war with Iran.

The office of Pahlavi, who fled Iran after his father, the Western-backed Shah, was ousted during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, said on social media that his opposition had heard of five players seeking asylum, and named them in the post.

“These five brave athletes, who are currently in a safe place, have announced that they have joined Iran’s National Lion and Sun Revolution,” Pahlavi’s office said, referring to Iran’s pre-Islamic Revolution flag.

Sources in the Iranian-Australian community told the Morning Herald that the women were “getting support” after they took a break from their entire team and management on the Gold Coast on Monday night.

“The police took them somewhere safe,” Brisbane-based human rights activist Hadi Karimi told the newspaper. “Good, wonderful.”

Australia’s Department of Home Affairs did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request to confirm whether the five have applied for asylum.

If Australia offers asylum to women it is likely to receive sharp criticism from Iran.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Monday she did not want to “comment” on the fate of the women.

Before their first game of the tournament in Australia, against South Korea, the players refused to sing or salute their country’s national anthem, prompting the Conservatives to be severely punished and returned to Iran. The Islamic Republic’s state television network called them “traitors” and accused them of “the height of shame.”

“We are all very concerned for their safety,” Craig Foster, former captain of the Australian men’s soccer team and human rights lawyer, told CBS News of the BBC News network.

“If any team takes part in a competition controlled by Fifa, be it the Asian Football Confederation or any other confederation, they should have the right to safety and external support to express concerns they have about their safety now or in the future.”

In their next two games, the group played their own song. Alireza Mohebbi, the Australian correspondent for the Iran International opposition group, told Australia’s ABC network that the players could not have done it of their own free will. “In the first match against South Korea, they did not do that, but now that there is pressure from the media that broadcasts the news around the world, it is clear that the government is not only pushing them to sing the national anthem but to salute the military. There is no doubt.”

After the match that ended the team’s exit from the tournament on Sunday, many Iranian fans who were carrying the flag of the Iranian dynasty before the Islamic Republic, surrounded the team’s bus when it left the Gold Coast stadium, chanting “let’s go” and banging on the side of the car, according to The Guardian newspaper.

After 15 minutes of blocking the bus, the local police intervened to stop the crowd of about 200 people from leaving the bus.

Other banners seen among the protesters read: “Stay Safe Australia. Talk to the Police” and “If your home is not safe – mine is safe.”

Some of the players inside the car smiled and waved, others took pictures – but at least one closed the curtains as the bus began the 15-minute journey back to their hotel.

Some of the fans who were left standing near the stadium in the net were crying.

It was not clear when the players would leave their hotel and where they would go next.

An Iranian community group and civil society organizations have contacted Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke outlining their “concerns” about the players.

“They were abducted by the leaders of the Iranian group from their hotel and denied the opportunity to talk to outside community members, friends, family or other support networks, be it lawyers or anyone else,” Foster, who helped a group of Afghan women flee the Taliban in 2021, told the BBC. “Some may have concerns, some may not – but what we know is that most of them have families at home, some of them have children at home, and even if they are offered the right to stay in Australia, if they feel unsafe, many of them may not accept that opportunity.”

“The most important thing is that that gift is made,” he added.

President Trump, in a Monday post on his social media site The Truth, accused Australia of “making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iranian National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced to return to Iran, where they will likely be killed,” asking the country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to grant them asylum, adding: “The US will take them if you don’t want them.”