Since arriving in Australia against a backdrop of violence and terror back home, Iran\u2019s players have been wrapped in a cone of silence.<\/p>\n
Requests for media interviews have been shut down and information about their open training sessions were removed from the official tournament schedule. Even mandatory press conferences have been cagey, with an AFC media officer allowing just three \u201cfootball\u201d questions in each of the team\u2019s pre-match appearances.<\/p>\n
Iran players on the bench during the defeat to South Korea. Photograph: Dave Hunt\/AAP<\/p>\n
Their silence is understandable given the very real and imminent threats reportedly faced by players and staff who speak out against the regime. And so, in the vacuum of their silence, it has been the Iranian diaspora \u2013 the fans \u2013 who are speaking out.<\/p>\n
Ahead of Thursday\u2019s second group-stage match against the Matildas, a demonstration is being organised outside of Gold Coast Stadium by Iranians wanting to draw attention to the oppressive nature of the regime, not just back in their home but also here in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese women are prisoners,\u201d says Cyrus Jones, a human rights activist who will be attending the match. \u201cIranian security is up on their floor [of the hotel] at night. They can\u2019t leave their rooms. They can\u2019t use the public bathrooms. They\u2019re monitored when they go for breakfast, when they get on the bus. They\u2019re monitored in a way no other players from other teams are.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is happening on Australia\u2019s watch. I want to put a mirror up to our government and the AFC and Local Organising Committee. They have no clue. The Matildas can walk around just fine, do whatever they want. The Iranian players can\u2019t. It\u2019s like they\u2019ve put regime rules into the hotel and the stadium. They don\u2019t have any freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t say we\u2019re promoting the women\u2019s game while we\u2019re watching oppression happen in our own country, in a tournament that we\u2019re hosting and promoting and making money from.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Iran\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1031.jpg\")
Iran\u2019s women\u2019s team refuse to sing national anthem before Asian Cup tie \u2013 video<\/p>\n
The players\u2019 only power has been refusal, with footage of their silence during the anthem making headlines around the world. By contrast, the 90 minutes of singing from their fans only a few metres away became their de facto voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept saying \u2018Iranian female team, come and stay here!\u2019 and \u2018down with Islamic Republic!\u2019\u201d Ara said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother chant we said was: \u2018Take off your hijab!\u2019 But the police came to me and said the security for the Iran team told us to stop singing it as it upsets the players. But obviously the players can\u2019t talk, they can\u2019t say anything, so who is asking us to stop this?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re under a lot of oppression. They\u2019re not allowed to talk, they\u2019re not allowed to go on their phones. It\u2019s crazy, the amount of pressure they\u2019re under, I doubt it comes from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want the regime to change in Iran, we want the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] to be taken down. With any chance and any platform we get, we will make sure to say it out loud.\u201d<\/p>\n
She encouraged Matildas fans to show support for the Iranian players \u2013 not the regime \u2013 by joining in with their chants on Thursday night, which they will translate into English for the local crowd, and cheering for the players regardless of how they perform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message for the players is clear,\u201d Ara said. \u201cWe support them. We stand up for them. I know some of them are under threat to their life, so we will do anything in our power to support them.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople watching might think Iran is not a good team, but what you need to understand is that they are under oppression. They lost families, they lost loved ones, they lost team members, referees, friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are under such emotional pressure and yet they are standing here right now playing a game in the humidity of the Gold Coast with their hijab on. It\u2019s horrible. We\u2019re standing up for the world against this big terrorisation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Iran\u2019s national anthem began to trumpet around Gold Coast Stadium on Monday night, members of an Iranian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-323372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}