6 days ago
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IRAN’S women’s football team has been thrown into crisis after the squad was dragged onto a bus to leave Australia amid furious protests.
A frenzy erupted outside the teams Gold Coast hotel on Tuesday when protesters accosted the coach as it tried to leave.
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Terrifying footage published by the Australian showed one player firmly pulled by the wrist onto the coach by a teammate while another was heard wailing.
Images show protesters lying and standing in front of the bus in a desperate bid to block its exit.
The sportswomen were slammed by the regime after refusing to sing the national anthem ahead of their Asia Cup game against South Korea last Monday.
A commentator on Iranian state TV said the players’ decision to stand in silence on the pitch was the “pinnacle of dishonour”, adding that “traitors during wartime must be dealt with more severely.”
Concerns have been raised about whether the team was coerced into returning to Iran.
A woman who met the team in the hotel said the atmosphere was “tense and heavily controlled” with players “under constant monitoring”, news.com.au reports.
A chilling message smuggled by a player’s family out of Iran to the team read: “You need to stay”.
The stakes were raised again when US President Trump weighed in on the debate.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump warned the team “will most likely be killed” if they are allowed to return to Iran.
Within hours chaos broke out in the hotel lobby when five of the squad made a run for it.
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Members of the bloodthirsty Iranian Guard Corps (IRGC) had reportedly arrived to track down their country women.
The five escaping players included Zahra Ghanbari, the captain, along with Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh, and Mona Hamoudi.
They have all been granted asylum in Australia.
Australia’s home affairs minister Tony Burke met with the women Tuesday morning.
Photos show the women celebrating with the minister as he finalises paperwork.
Speaking of the other players, Burke said: “We realise they are in a terribly difficult situation with the decisions that they’re making. The opportunity will continue to be there for them to talk to Australian officials if they wish to.”
But fears still surround the remaining squad who have flown out of Coolangatta airport headed for Sydney.
They are understood to be flying from Sydney to Malaysia as soon as tonight, before they will be taken from Turkey to Tehran by bus.
There had been growing calls to block the teams return to Iran over fears of persecution, as their home country continues its war with the US and Israel under a new hard-line supreme leader.
The team were forced to sing the anthem and salute before their second match on Thursday and on Sunday, sources told CNN.
After their final match in the cup against the Philippines on Sunday night, some members gave what appeared to be an SOS hand signal from their team bus.
It comes after the squad was rocked by the death of teammate Zahra Azadpour, 27, during the vicious crackdown on protests by the IRGC in January.
Thousands of Iranian protesters were killed for standing up against their cruel government.
The star played for Iranian Women’s League team Mehregan Pardis and had joined training camps with the national team.
The demonstrations sparked Donald Trump’s fury at the regime, which has now descended into an all-out conflict in the Middle East.
The US and Israel continue to hit Iran hard after killing the country’s supreme tyrant in operation Epic Fury.
The blitz that took out the Ayatollah kicked off eleven days of intense bombardment, with the rogue nation wreaking its revenge by targeting US bases across the Middle East.
English (US) · 