{"id":524962,"date":"2026-03-09T17:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524962\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T17:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:25:08","slug":"iranian-womens-soccer-players-flash-help-signal-after-being-branded-traitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524962\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian women\u2019s soccer players flash ‘help’ signal after being branded traitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Iranian women\u2019s soccer team<\/a> appeared to flash a \u201chelp\u201d hand signal following their Women\u2019s Asian Cup loss in Australia over the weekend \u2014 as several players scrambled to seek asylum amid fears they\u2019ll be persecuted if they return home.<\/p>\n

Fears have been mounting for the players\u2019 safety ever since the female athletes were branded\u00a0\u201cwartime traitors\u201d by Iranian state media for refusing to sing their national anthem ahead of one of their matches last week. <\/p>\n

After being eliminated\u00a0from the Australian-hosted tournament following a 2-0\u00a0loss to the Philippines on Sunday, at least one player was reportedly spotted signing the word \u201chelp\u201d through a window as their bus left the stadium in Queensland, multiple activists claimed.<\/p>\n

Fears have been mounting for members of the Iranian women\u2019s soccer team ever since they were branded\u00a0\u201cwartime traitors\u201d by Iranian state media for refusing to sing their national anthem in Australia. AP<\/p>\n

After being eliminated\u00a0from the Australian-hosted tournament following a 2-0\u00a0loss to the Philippines on Sunday, at least one player was allegedly spotted signing the word \u201chelp\u201d through a window as their bus left the stadium in Queensland. X \/ Tarikh_Eran<\/p>\n

At least five players have now also fled the hotel where the team had been staying in an attempt to avoid having to return to Iran.<\/p>\n

It comes as President Trump on Monday urged the Australian government to offer asylum to the soccer players \u2014 warning they could potentially be killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman\u2019s\u00a0Soccer\u00a0team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed,\u201d Trump said in a Truth Social post. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe US will take them if you won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh and Mona Hamoudi were among the players who have already sought protection. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese five courageous athletes, currently in a safe location, have announced that they have joined Iran\u2019s national Lion and Sun Revolution,\u201d Iran\u2019s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi posted on X.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the global players\u2019 union FIFPRO said earlier Monday that there were serious concerns for the welfare of the team as players prepared to return home.<\/p>\n

The alarm for the players\u2019 safety has been raging ever since the women opted to stand in silence during Iran\u2019s anthem during their first match of the tournament against South Korea last week \u2014\u00a0just as the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, killing the Islamic Republic\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State media commentators quickly branded the move the \u201cpinnacle of dishonor.\u201d<\/p>\n

After sparking controversy at home, the women saluted ahead of their second match. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cTraitors during wartime must be dealt with more severely,\u201d presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi raged on Islamic Republic of\u00a0Iran\u00a0Broadcasting. <\/p>\n

When the women then sang the anthem and saluted before their second match against Australia, it sparked fears among human rights campaigners that the\u00a0team\u00a0had been coerced by government minders.<\/p>\n

Following their elimination from the tournament on Sunday, Iranian fans desperately tried to prevent the team coach from leaving the stadium and were filmed chanting \u201cSave our girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 66,000 people have\u00a0also\u00a0signed a petition calling on the Australian government to ensure the players don\u2019t have to leave the country \u201cwhile credible fears for their\u00a0safety\u00a0remain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beau Busch, FIFPRO president for Asia and Oceania, said the\u00a0union\u00a0had been unable to contact the players to discuss whether they would like to seek asylum in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really challenging situation,\u201d he said, adding the union was working with FIFA, the\u00a0Asian\u00a0Football Confederation and the Australian government to ensure that \u201cevery bit of pressure is applied\u201d to protect the players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be players that want to return. There may be some players within the group that would like to seek asylum and would like to stay in Australia for longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Iranian women\u2019s soccer team appeared to flash a \u201chelp\u201d hand signal following their Women\u2019s Asian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[2840,49,48,5897,206654,561,82,883],"class_list":["post-524962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-australia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-iran","tag-iran-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}