The soccer players of the Iranian national team are showing solidarity with the demonstrators in their home country who are fighting for women’s rights. With this they show courage, a former colleague is arrested. Meanwhile, a women’s rights movement in the country is calling on FIFA to ban Iran from the World Cup.
Will the Qatar World Cup take place without the Iran team? At least that’s the will of the Iranian women’s rights movement “Open Stadiums”. She has asked FIFA to ban the team from the tournament. “Why should FIFA give the Iranian state and its representatives a global stage?” writes “Open Stadiums” personally in a letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino. She campaigns against discrimination against women and has been calling for women to have unhindered access to football stadiums in Iran for years.
“This state not only refuses to respect fundamental rights and human dignity. It tortures and kills its own people,” the letter said. “Where are the principles of the FIFA Statutes in this regard? We call on FIFA to immediately ban Iran from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.”
The background is the current incidents surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini. She had been arrested by the moral police for an alleged “un-Islamic outfit”. The 22-year-old is said to have not worn her headgear, the hijab, according to the specifications. What exactly happened after her arrest is unclear. Amini had fallen into a coma and died in hospital on September 16. Since then there have been nationwide protests against the government, they accuse the police of killing the woman, the authorities deny this.
“Open Stadiums” justified the exclusion of the Iranian national team with Articles 3 and 4 of the FIFA Statutes. These state that all internationally recognized human rights are to be respected and the protection of these is to be promoted. In addition, discrimination is punishable. FIFA has not yet responded to a request from ntv.de on how it responds to the claim.
At least 76 people have been killed by police since the protests began, according to the human rights organization Iran Human Rights. “Both the uprising in Iran that followed the assassination of Mahsa Amini and the regime’s brutal crackdown on the protesting Iranian people are unfortunately very familiar to us and bring back many terrible memories for female football fans in Iran,” the letter read from Open Stadiums ” further.
For years they were forbidden to visit a stadium there. They therefore denounce Infantino: “You have repeatedly publicly promised that FIFA will investigate this serious violation of human rights, but unfortunately we have come to the conclusion that these were all empty words and promises. Nothing has changed.” In 2019, Infantino asked Iran to let women into the stadium. Since then, this has been possible, but in March 2022 women were again prevented from attending a match between Iran and Lebanon with pepper spray.
The protesters have a well-known comrade-in-arms in ex-soccer pro Ali Karimi, who once played for FC Bayern and FC Schalke 04. He spread messages of support on Twitter, including some denouncing the regime. But he himself came into focus, ARD journalist Natalie Amiri reported that the ex-professional’s house was confiscated. He posted a photo of a blocked front door on Twitter with the words: “A house without land is worthless.” Karimi himself is no longer in his home country, to which he retired after the end of his career. He is now in Dubai, according to consistent reports. After the confiscation became known, the Iranian news agency Fars News announced that it had ended and that Karimi is said to have sold his house and other belongings before moving to Dubai. But there are serious doubts about this statement.
On Thursday evening, Karimi tweeted a photo and the name of Hossein Mahinis along with a broken heart and a crying emoji. The 36-year-old former international was arrested “by order of the judicial authorities” because he had called for and supported unrest on his social media pages,” said the state news agency IRNA.
The current national players position themselves clearly. Most recently, the team was in Austria for a training camp and friendlies. In the game against Senegal (1-1), the entire starting XI came onto the field in black jackets, so the shirts with the crest were hidden during the national anthem. Spectators were not allowed to watch the game.
Some of them also express their solidarity with the people who are rebelling against the rulers in Iran. For example, team captain Ali-Resa Dchahanbachsch: “We are always on the side of the people, who are demanding nothing more than their basic rights these days,” he wrote after a training camp in Austria, where he said the players were not allowed to have internet access . Striker Mehdi Taremi also spoke up on Instagram: “I’m ashamed (as an Iranian) when I see the pictures of the last few days.” Violence is unacceptable and cannot solve the problems. Other players did not comment explicitly, but colored their profiles black.
Leverkusen striker Sardar Azmoun was one of the first to form an alliance. He had attacked the rulers in clear words: “Ashamed of you all, how carelessly people are murdered. Iranian women live long.” He couldn’t stand the silence any longer. If he were kicked out of the national team for this, it would be “a small sacrifice compared to every single strand of hair on an Iranian woman”. His post was later deleted. But the words of the 27-year-old were already in the world, he was a celebrated hero.
Of the 27 players called up by national coach Carlos Queiroz for the Austria trip, 16 play in clubs outside of Iran. Seven others have already played abroad. So you have had your own experiences with other ways of life and other forms of government. Their protests and large platform are potentially a threat to the Iranian regime. The players put themselves in danger, but no one was excluded from the test games in Austria.
It is questionable whether this caused a stir, whether excluding Iran is the most sensible way to punish those in power. It is planned that Iran will meet the USA, England and Wales in preliminary round group B. The attention of the internationals is definitely greater when they can be at the tournament. You then have an audience of billions spread all over the world.
However, after the “differences” ended in January 2021, World Cup hosts Qatar are again an ally of Iran, also a Muslim country and under criticism for ongoing human rights violations. It is therefore questionable how the World Cup organizers would react to any protests. And with it, how strong the pressure on FIFA is. Especially since their boss, Infantino, has moved to Doha.
Recently, however, FIFA had repeatedly tolerated political messages, although these are actually forbidden. But when players kneeled after the death of George Floyd in support of the demonstrators against police violence in the USA and also at the embassy of the DFB team and Norway for human rights, FIFA rejected sanctions.
For Iran, this World Cup is already a political excitement. The last group match for the team will take place on November 29 – it’s the game against the USA. The game between two countries that are political enemies. There have only been two duels so far, in 1998 in the group phase of the World Cup and two years later a friendly. In all likelihood, this group game will be Iran’s last appearance at the World Cup and progression is almost impossible. So far, the question has been how Iran will respond. Now the question is whether Iran will appear at all.
