{"id":12480,"date":"2026-03-10T11:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/12480\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:15:07","slug":"australia-grants-asylum-to-5-iranian-womens-soccer-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/12480\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia grants asylum to 5 Iranian women’s soccer players"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) \u2014 Australia granted asylum to five members of the Iranian women\u2019s soccer team who were visiting the country<\/a> for a tournament when the Iran war<\/a> began, a government minister said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The announcement followed days of urging by Iranian groups in Australia and by U.S. President Donald Trump for the Australian government to help the women, who had not spoken publicly about a wish to claim asylum. The team drew speculation and news coverage in Australia when players didn\u2019t sing the Iranian anthem before their first match. <\/p>\n

Early Tuesday, police officers transported five of the women from their hotel in Gold Coast, Australia, \u201cto a safe location\u201d after they made asylum requests. There, they met with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and the processing of their humanitarian visas was finalized.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to begin to imagine how difficult that decision is for each of the individual women, but certainly last night it was joy, it was relief,\u201d said Burke, who posted photos to social media of the women smiling and clapping as he signed documents. \u201cPeople were very excited about embarking on a life in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The women granted asylum were happy for their names and pictures to be published, he said. Burke added that the players wanted to make clear that they were \u201cnot political activists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iranian state TV said the country\u2019s football federation asked international soccer bodies to review what it called Trump\u2019s \u201cdirect political interference in football,\u201d warning such remarks could disrupt the 2026 World Cup, which begins in North America in June.<\/p>\n

Naghmeh Danai said she was invited as a migration agent and member of the Iranian-Australian community to visit the women at a hotel Monday night and to reassure them about what was available to them in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them that if you accept this offer, you will have a great future here. You will have more respect. You won\u2019t be under a lot of suppression that you have been in your country. And they were thrilled,\u201d Danai said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s understandable that it was a very hard decision for them to make when they have family back home and when they just came here to compete,\u201d Danai added. <\/p>\n

Future remains unknown for 21 in squad and others<\/p>\n

The Iranian team arrived in Australia for the Women\u2019s Asian Cup last month, before the Iran war began on Feb. 28. The team was knocked out of the tournament over the weekend and faced the prospect of returning to a country under bombardment. Iran\u2019s head coach Marziyeh Jafari said Sunday the players \u201cwant to come back to Iran as soon as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

An official squad list named 26 players, plus Jafari and other coaches. Burke said the offer of asylum was extended to all on the team.<\/p>\n

A commotion erupted Tuesday afternoon outside the team\u2019s hotel as members of the public knelt or lay in front of the team bus. <\/p>\n

Australia granted asylum to five members of the Iranian women\u2019s soccer team who were visiting the country for a tournament when the Iran war began, a government minister said Tuesday. It was not clear when the remaining players were due to leave Australia, but a commotion erupted Tuesday afternoon outside the team\u2019s hotel as members of the public kneeled or lay down in front of a white bus with tinted windows believed to be carrying the rest of the team. The protesters tried to prevent the bus from departing the hotel, but it was delayed by only minutes.<\/p>\n

The protesters, some wearing red, white and green clothing or holding pre-Revolution Iranian flags, tried to prevent the bus from departing the hotel, but it was delayed by only minutes. Some chanted \u201cSave our girls\u201d and \u201cPlease act now.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Iranian-born protester who sat in front of the bus, Hadi Karimi, said the demonstrators had attempted to buy the team members more time to talk to Australian authorities before they left the country.<\/p>\n

Karimi regarded five of the team remaining in Australia as a success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t slept. We were there. That means it works. We did something,\u201d Karimi told the AP.<\/p>\n

The women flew to Sydney Airport where they were expected to board an international flight, Ten Network News reported.<\/p>\n

Police evicted rowdy protesters from the international terminal hours before the Iranian team was expected to leave, the network reported.<\/p>\n

Iranian team popular in Australia<\/p>\n

Burke didn\u2019t detail what threats the players faced if they returned to Iran. During the tournament, the women have mostly declined to comment on the situation at home, although Iran forward Sara Didar choked back tears in a news conference Wednesday as she shared their concerns for their families and all Iranians.<\/p>\n

The Iranian team has drawn national news coverage in Australia after the players\u2019 silence during the anthem<\/a> before an opening loss to South Korea last week was viewed by some as an act of resistance and others as a show of mourning. The team hasn\u2019t clarified. Players later sang and saluted during the anthem<\/a> before their remaining two matches. <\/p>\n

\u201cAustralians have been moved by the plight of these brave women,\u201d Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters Tuesday. \u201cThey\u2019re safe here and they should feel at home here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asylum came during Trump\u2019s urging<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s announcement came after Trump on Monday in Washington called on Australia to grant asylum to any team member who wanted it. Earlier that day, Trump had lambasted Australia on social media, saying Australia was \u201cmaking a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the … team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed.\u201d Trump added: \u201cThe U.S. will take them if you won\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n

Less than two hours later, in another social media post, Trump praised Albanese, saying, \u201cHe\u2019s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s football federation said Trump\u2019s comments were \u201cbaseless and unlawful\u201d and urged global football authorities to intervene.<\/p>\n

Iranian first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref separately said: \u201cIran welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their security.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has the right to interfere in the family affairs of the Iranian nation and play the role of a nanny who is kinder than a mother,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

The president\u2019s offer of asylum represented something of a change for Trump, whose administration has sought to limit the number of immigrants in the U.S. who can receive asylum for political purposes.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand, and Rico from Atlanta. AP journalists Jon Gambrell, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) \u2014 Australia granted asylum to five members of the Iranian women\u2019s soccer team who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[719,2371,1678,6916,1648,6914,6915,38,197,6919,34,61,196,6920,81,6918,2576,549,785,771,3381,6917,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-12480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","10":"tag-anthony-albanese","11":"tag-asylum","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-government","14":"tag-brisbane","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-hadi-karimi","18":"tag-iran","19":"tag-iran-government","20":"tag-iran-war","21":"tag-mohammad-reza-aref","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-sara-didar","24":"tag-soccer","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-tony-burke","27":"tag-washington-news","28":"tag-womens-soccer","29":"tag-womens-sports","30":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116204596388673012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}