Seattle’s World Cup committee long ago chose Friday’s soccer match to honor LGBTQ+ Pride. Then FIFA announced the game would feature Iran and Egypt, where LGBTQ+ people are persecuted. Then the U.S. went to war with Iran.
All those things have attracted political attention. And another aspect of the match is stirring discussion among Seattle-area Iranian Americans, as they consider how to use it as an opportunity to celebrate, protest or both.
Some local community members plan to focus on soccer and cheer, because they see it as a special opportunity to show pride in their heritage together. A win Friday would qualify Iran for the tournament’s knockout stage.
Meanwhile, some Iranian Americans who plan to rally outside Seattle Stadium view Iran’s team as part of the long-oppressive Islamic Republic regime that carried out a deadly crackdown on its own people earlier this year.
And some spectators may boo and turn their backs during the anthem, while others have been struggling to decide whether to show up at all.
“I really don’t know,” Behrooz Tahmasebi, 70, a Seattle retiree and lifelong soccer fan who vehemently opposes the regime, said last week.
The conversation isn’t just a Seattle thing. There were tense moments before a match in Los Angeles last week as some Iranian Americans criticized others for cheering the team or wearing gear with the Islamic Republic flag.
Hanif Zarrabi-Kashani, a cybersecurity analyst and soccer referee from Seattle who went to the match in L.A., said he won’t be taking his young daughter to Friday’s game partly because of what he witnessed last week.
But Zarrabi-Kashani, 45, still plans to go to Friday’s match because he views the Iran team as representing all Iranian people, not the regime, he said.
Tensions notwithstanding, it’s also possible the atmosphere will be relatively positive in Seattle, where World Cup vibes have been riding high.
“I’m hopeful the spirit and environment of the game will be unifying and joyous” during a hard time for Iranians and Iranian Americans, said Darya Farivar, a state representative from Seattle who plans to attend the match.
Some community members say they can’t separate the soccer team from the Islamic Republic government because the regime controls everything in Iran, including the national soccer setup. They suggest Iran should be barred from the World Cup, like Russia was barred after invading Ukraine.
“We are not supporting this team because if they are not supporters of the regime, they cannot participate in the national team,” said Homeira Bakhtiari, an immigrant from Iran who lives in Bothell. “We want to raise awareness about the human rights violations in Iran and to demand regime change.”
Bakhtiari said she plans to participate in a peaceful protest before the match and then go into the stadium with the lion and sun flag that was used by Iran’s monarchy before the 1979 revolution that led to the Islamic Republic.
The flag has been a flashpoint during the World Cup. FIFA says political materials are prohibited from matches, and The New York Times has reported that includes the lion and sun flag. Although an L.A. judge upheld the ban last week, some of the flags made it into the L.A. stadium and Seattle leaders have said they oppose FIFA’s stance. Some Iranian Americans see the flag as empowering, while others associate it with the monarchy’s own wrongs.
Still, “I think it’s an oversimplification to look at the Iranian community and say that there is just black and white,” said Naseem Ghazanfari, a Seattle-area doctor from Iran who plans to sit out the game. “We are a colorful nation.”
Varied approaches to Friday’s match may be influenced by how individual community members view the current war and U.S. politics, generation gaps and the trauma many people have experienced, several Iranian Americans said.
This coverage is partially underwritten by Microsoft Philanthropies. The Seattle Times maintains editorial control over this and all its coverage.
Daniel Beekman: 206-464-2164 or dbeekman@seattletimes.com. Daniel Beekman is a reporter at The Seattle Times, where he covers politics and communities, telling stories that explain how government decisions affect people across Washington.