{"id":523483,"date":"2026-03-06T23:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523483\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T23:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T23:35:21","slug":"grave-fears-emerge-for-iranian-players-after-asian-cup-clash-with-matildas-imminent-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523483\/","title":{"rendered":"Grave fears emerge for Iranian players after Asian Cup clash with Matildas: \u2018Imminent danger\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grave fears have emerged for Iranian\u2019s women\u2019s football players just hours after their Asian Cup clash with the Matildas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Thursday night on the Gold Coast, the players sang and saluted their national anthem<\/a>, a noticeable backflip on their actions from their previous game when they made global headlines.<\/p>\n

In that clash with South Korea on Monday, there was no singing or saluting for the anthem.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, alaraming threats have emerged.<\/p>\n

Iranian state TV presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi has appeared on social media to say the players \u201cmust be dealt with properly\u201d for their act of \u201cbetrayal\u201d, while calling them \u201cwartime traitors\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shahbazi is considered a radical conservative and influential in his home state.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Iran team before the clash with the Matildas. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me just say one thing: traitors during wartime must be dealt with more severely,\u201d Shahbazi said (via platform X\u2019s translation) on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who takes a step against the country under war conditions must be dealt with more severely.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike this matter of our women\u2019s football team not singing the national anthem, and that photo that was published and so on, which I won\u2019t get into. These people must be dealt with more severely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is no longer just a symbolic protest move or the like. In a war situation, in this state of affairs, where they strike and martyr students and seven-to-eight-year-old girls in schools, where they attack the neonatal ward of a hospital, where they hit stadiums.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor you to go there and not sing the national anthem; this is the pinnacle of dishonour and lack of patriotism.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the people and the officials should treat these individuals as wartime traitors, not as if they just had a protest or performed a symbolic act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stigma of dishonour and betrayal must remain on their foreheads, and separately they must be dealt with properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the comments, Iranian journalist Ali Bornaei sounded the alarm, and tagged in Australia\u2019s Foreign Affairs minister Penny Wong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lives of the Iranian Women\u2019s National Football Team are in imminent danger,\u201d he said on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter their peaceful protest in Australia, Iranian state-linked media has officially labelled them \u2018wartime traitors\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Iran, \u2018treason\u2019 is a capital offense punishable by death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese athletes face arbitrary detention and execution if forced to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urgently call on the Australian Government to provide immediate asylum and protection for these brave women. Australia must not allow them to be sent back to a regime that views a silent protest as a crime worthy of the gallows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian-based protesters against the Iranian regime have said the country was using the women\u2019s football team to normalise their alleged crimes.<\/p>\n

In the hours before Iran\u2019s Women\u2019s Asian Cup clash with Australia, about 50 Iranian Australians chanted \u2018thank you Bibi, thank you Trump\u2019, in reference to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump authorising the bombing of Iran which has killed Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the players are hostages of the Islamic regime who are trying to normalise their crimes they have committed on Iranian people,\u201d Iranian-born Australian human rights advocate Azin Naghibi told AAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive the players one second of a chance and they would get rid of that mandatory hijab first thing. If they had free speech and weren\u2019t being controlled, I am sure most of them would join us and be aligned with the 90 million other Iranians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to support their emotions because they are under pressure and we are their voices in the Iranian diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran coach Marziyeh Jafaribaravati said the players took a lot of self-belief from competing against Australia and had a message for the team\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate the fans that have supported us in Australia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has slammed the war against Iran as illegal while French President Emmanuel Macron said the US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Iran\u2019s supreme leader were conducted \u201coutside of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Naghibi said that the actions of Trump and Netanyahu were necessary.<\/p>\n

She said she was \u201ca freedom fighter\u201d who had been in Australia for over 12 years after fleeing Iran for her own safety. She protested against the regime and was in the streets when there was bloodshed after the protesters were harmed .<\/p>\n

\u201cIranians cannot get rid of this brutal regime. It would cost more innocent lives to be killed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith their bare hands it would take many years to get rid of this regime and cost many more lives. We needed this intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the anthem on Thursday, some dissident Iranians booed while some people in the crowd held up letters that spelled out Trump.<\/p>\n

– With AAP<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Iran players backflip on national anthem before Matildas clash<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

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2 min read<\/p>\n

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