(Adnkronos) – Most of the players of the women’s national football team have returned to Iran, after being at the center of a case in recent weeks after some of them had sought asylum in Australia. According to what an Afp agency journalist observed on the spot, the group crossed the Gurbulak-Bazargan pass, on the border between Turkey and Iran. Among them are four players – including captain Zahra Ghanbari – and a staff member who withdrew their asylum request submitted in Australia and decided to return to the Islamic Republic, while Israeli and US air strikes continue.
The footballers, wearing the Iranian national team tracksuit, arrived at the pass – about 900 kilometers from Tehran – by bus after landing at Igdir airport in eastern Turkey.
Having arrived last Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Australia where they had played in the Asian Cup, the footballers then left on Monday for Oman, before taking a flight to Istanbul yesterday.
The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, welcomed in a post on X “the players and technical teams” who “are daughters of the homeland” and whom “the people of Iran embrace”. They have “disappointed the enemies” of the Islamic Republic, resisting “the deceptions and intimidations of anti-Iran elements,” he added.
Seven members of the Iranian women’s delegation – six players and one staff member – had initially sought asylum in Australia, after being called “traitors” in their country for refusing to sing the national anthem before a match, in the midst of the war. Only two players remained on Australian soil.
Human rights groups have accused Iranian authorities of pressuring athletes abroad, threatening their family members or assets in case of defection or criticism of the Islamic Republic. Iranian authorities, on the other hand, accused Australia of pressuring the players to stay.
