Defiant Iran let their silence do the talking
World Cup players refuse to sing national anthem before England match in support of protesters
‘I’m 34 years old and I love football, but I have never been to a game because the government won’t allow me into a stadium’
THEY may have lost the game but Iran’s footballers won admirers around the world for courageously taking a stand against the oppressive regime in Tehran, despite a risk of personal reprisals.
Before the start of their World Cup game against England in Qatar yesterday, Iran’s players refused to sing their country’s national anthem while their captain spoke to support anti-government protests back home, which have resulted in more than 300 deaths so far.
Emboldened by their team, supporters in the stadium also voiced their dissent by jeering the national anthem and holding up placards demanding greater freedom for women. They included female fans who were attending a match for the first time because they are not allowed to do so in their home country.
It came as the head of Israeli intelligence claimed that Iran had considered “disrupting” the World Cup, which is being held around 100 miles from Iran.
Protests against the regime have been taking place since September, when Mahsa Amini, 22, died after she was arrested and beaten while in custody by the Iran’s “morality police” for failing to wear her hijab correctly.
As well as hundreds of deaths, the protests have brought thousands of arrests in a country that uses torture and arbitrary detention to crush dissent. That has sparked calls for Iran to be thrown out of the World Cup.
Although Iran’s football team had remained vehemently apolitical, the players yesterday bravely decided to use the tournament’s global platform to embarrass Tehran over civil rights.
Iranian fans carrying the flag of Persia as a protest were thwarted by security guards at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. They confiscated them at stadium entrances, while fans wearing T-shirts with the Persian flag were made to turn them inside out.
The flag, which was replaced after the Islamic revolution overthrew the Shah in 1979, is still used by many opponents of the clerical regime.
The message appeared to have got through, according to a London-based dissident website, as football fans in the Shahran district of Tehran were filmed celebrating England’s six goals and chanting “death to the dictator” in reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. There were also reports on social media of “major disruption” to internet services in Iran, prompting speculation the regime had stepped in to prevent images of dissent being seen.
In Doha, an Iranian woman wearing a protest T-shirt told The Daily Telegraph she had travelled to Qatar to watch the first football match of her life.
“I’m 34 years’ old and I love football,” she said, “but I have never been to a game because the government won’t allow me into the stadium. Today is my dream. My favourite team is Manchester United and I love Italian football too. I shouldn’t have had to wait this long to watch a game in real life.”
The fan, who would not give her name and would only be photographed with her scarf over her face, said she was worried about Iranian spies watching for dissidents in the crowd.
“They will be here somewhere, I’m sure of it,” she said. “But ... I want the world to know what is happening to women in my country. We want peace and progress, that is all.”
The violence continued in Iran, where security forces fired on protesters in a Kurdish town in the west, killing at least five during an anti-government march after the funeral of two people killed the day before.
Before the match in Doha, Iran’s team captain Ehasan Hajsafi, 32, had expressed his condolences to families who have lost loved ones in the crackdown. “Let them know that we are with them and sympathise with them,” he said. “We have to accept that the conditions in our country are not right and our people are not happy.
“We are here but it does not mean that we should not be their voice, or we must not respect them. Whatever we have is from them. We have to fight, we have to perform the best we can and score goals, and present the brave people of Iran with the results.”
Major disruption to internet service in Iran was reported last night as mobile internet was cut for many users amid a wave of new protests over the death of Mahsa Amini.
Such outages have been regular since the 22-year-old’s death in the custody of morality police as authorities seek to quell protests.