5 Iranian women soccer players who sought asylum in Australia allowed to stay, official says

Five members of the Iranian women’s national football team who sought asylum in Australia a week after refusing to sing the Iranian national anthem before a match will be allowed to remain in the country, according to an Australian official.

“Last night I was able to tell five women from the Iranian women’s football team that they were welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe and have a home here,” Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on X on Monday.

Burke posted footage of himself signing a piece of paper alongside Iranian athletes.

The Home Office did not immediately respond to a CBS News request to confirm that the five had applied for or been granted asylum.

The footballers were staying in a safe place after fleeing their hotel, Iranian opposition figure and exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi said on Sunday.

It was unclear where the players would go after Burke’s announcement.

Trump congratulates Australian PM after initial criticism

In an article published Monday on Truth Social, President Trump wrote: “I just spoke to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the Iranian women’s national soccer team.

He added that Albanese was “doing a very good job dealing with this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia!”

Before Burke’s announcement, Mr Trump had criticized Australia and accused the country of “making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iranian women’s national football team to be forcibly returned to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.”

In a previous Truth Social article published Monday morning, he called on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to grant them asylum, adding: “The United States will accept them if you don’t.”

Why did Iranian footballers seek asylum in Australia?

Before their first match of the tournament in Australia, against South Korea on March 2, the players refused to sing or salute their country’s national anthem, prompting calls for harsh sanctions from Iranian conservatives. The Islamic Republic’s state television channel called them “traitors” and accused them of the “peak of dishonor.”

In their next two matches, the team sang and saluted their anthem. Alireza Mohebbi, Australia correspondent for opposition news network Iran International, told Australian broadcaster ABC that the players would not have done this by choice.

“It is completely obvious that the Islamic Republic regime and the security team accompanying the players to Australia forced them to sing the anthem,” he said. “In the first match against South Korea, they didn’t do it, but now, with all the pressure and the media spreading the news around the world, it is quite obvious that the regime pushed them not only to sing the anthem but also to give the military salute. There is no doubt.”

Australian authorities have been urged to help the women after they were eliminated from the Asian Cup on Sunday, amid fears of what could happen to them if they return home as planned amid the ongoing crisis. US-Israeli war against Iran.

The office of Pahlavi, whose father, the Western-backed Shah, was ousted during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, said on social media that the “courageous athletes” had announced that they had “joined Iran’s Lion and Sun National Revolution” – a reference to Iran’s pre-Islamic Revolution flag – and named them in the post.

After the match that sealed the team’s elimination from the tournament on Sunday, Iranian fans, many carrying the flag of Iran’s pre-Islamic Republic monarchy, surrounded the team bus as it left the Gold Coast stadium, chanting “let them go” and banging on the side of the vehicle, according to The Guardian.

After blocking the bus for 15 minutes, local police intervened to round up the crowd of around 200 people so the bus could leave.

Other banners seen among protesters read: “Stay safe in Australia. Talk to the police” and “If your house isn’t safe, mine is.”

Some players inside the vehicle smiled and waved, others filmed — but at least one closed the curtains as the bus began the 15-minute journey back to his hotel.

The five Iranian players have distanced themselves from the rest of their team and its coaches in the Gold Coast region, sources in the Iranian-Australian community told the Morning Herald, adding that the women were “receiving support”.

“We all have very reasonable and serious concerns about their safety,” Craig Foster, former captain of the Australian men’s soccer team and human rights advocate, told CBS News sister network BBC News.

“When a team participates in a tournament regulated by Fifa, whether it is the Asian Football Confederation or any other confederation, it must be entitled to security and external support to express any concerns about its safety, now or in the future.”

A group from the Iranian community and civil society groups contacted Burke to express “serious concerns” about the players.

“They were taken hostage by the Iranian team management in their hotel and denied the opportunity to speak to external members of the community, friends, family or any support network, whether lawyers or anyone,” Foster, who helped the Afghan women’s team flee the Taliban in 2021, told the BBC. “Some may have concerns, some may not – but what we do know is that most of them have families back home, some of them have children back home, and even if they were offered the right to stay in Australia, if they don’t feel safe, many of them might not accept that opportunity.”

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