Women footballer’s team returned to Iran: rejected the offer of asylum, Iranian team became the talk of the Asian Cup football tournament
Australia. Most of the players and support staff members of Iran’s women’s football team left for home on Wednesday after rejecting Australia’s offer of asylum. Seven members of the Iranian team, however, accepted Australia’s offer of asylum. They were granted visas on humanitarian grounds, thus allowing them to reside in Australia permanently.
Protests also took place outside Sydney Airport in protest against the departure of the Iranian team. As the time of his team’s departure approached, he was again proposed to seek refuge. Australia’s Home Minister Tony Burke said he made last-ditch efforts to ensure every member of the team could consider an asylum offer. He said that as the women went through security they were taken aside individually to speak to Australian officials and interpreters.
“Australia made this proposal because we are personally deeply impressed by these women,” Burke said. It is your decision to implement the option that Australia has given. This is a choice that every person should have the right to make.” Except for seven members of the Iranian team, none of the other members accepted the asylum offer and the team plane departed from Sydney with all the remaining members.
The tense and uncertain nature of the decisions involving members of Iran’s soccer team became clearer on Wednesday when Burke announced that one of the seven members who received asylum would be returning home. Burke said, “People in Australia can change their minds.” He said that the two new members of the team who have been granted asylum are a player and a member of support staff.
Both of them had sought asylum even before other members of their team were taken to the airport. Burke had posted photographs of these seven members of the Iranian team on his social media account, in which their identities were clearly visible. It was a dramatic end to an event that had been the talk of Australia since the Iranian team’s first match in the Asian Cup football tournament.
Iran’s players remained silent during the national anthem before their first match, which got a lot of headlines. The Iranian team arrived in Australia to participate in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup last month, just before the Iran war began. His team was quickly eliminated from the tournament after which the team had to return to their country where the situation is bad due to war. The Iran team touring Australia included 26 players and support staff members.
People of the Iranian community in Australia and US President Donald Trump had urged the Australian government to help those women who are unable to publicly seek asylum. There was further outrage in Australia on Wednesday when a photo emerged showing a woman being led onto an airport bus by the wrist of her teammate while another team member had his hand on her shoulder.
Meanwhile, an Iranian official rejected the suggestion that it was not safe for women to return home. Iran’s Vice President Mohammad Reza Arif said, “Iran welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their safety. No one has the right to interfere in Iran’s family affairs and play the role of a more compassionate midwife than a mother.
According to Iran’s state TV, the country’s football federation had called it Trump’s ‘direct political interference in football’ and requested international football organizations to review it. It has warned that such action could disrupt the World Cup starting on June 11 in the US, Canada and Mexico.
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