Gold Coast (Australia), March 3. Iran national women’s football team held a silent protest during the first match of the AFC Asian Cup. Indeed, the players refused to sing the Iranian national anthem before the match, when it was played at the Seabus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast.
Before the match against South Korea, players from both teams were in their traditional lines and when the Iranian national anthem began to play, none of the Iranian players or head coach Marziyeh Jafari sang along as they were looking straight ahead and barely moving.
BIG: Iranian women’s national football team refused to sing the anthem of the Islamic Regime at the opening match of the Asian Cup in front of the entire world. pic.twitter.com/zoQSAzOQ08
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) March 3, 2026
This silent protest took place after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in Israeli and American attacks. Iran’s captains Zahra Ghanbari and Jafari were asked by the media on Sunday about Khamenei’s death. But he immediately avoided the question. According to ESPN, Jafari responded in Farsi, but an AFC media representative cut off his response without any translation.
Although South Korea won the match 3–0, coach Jafri was happy with the team’s efforts. After the match he said, ‘We knew that our next match would be difficult because Korea is one of the toughest teams in Asia. He played very well, so I congratulate him and I hope we make a strong comeback in the tournament.
“We had a strategy for the second half, and we put pressure on (them),” he said. We changed from defensive to offensive (tactics). We had an individual mistake for a penalty and the set-piece was also one of our players’ mistakes. But I think the team’s performance was very good.
Iran has played three matches so far in the tournament, out of which one has been drawn while two have been lost. Furthermore, they had to face defeat against South Korea in their tournament opener in 2026.
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