SYDNEY: Two former Iranian women footballers said Thursday they were “proud” to have been granted Australian citizenship after being branded traitors at home for refusing to sing the national anthem before a game.<\/p>\n
Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh were members of a group of seven from Iran’s delegation who asked for Australia’s protection following the high-profile protest during the women’s Asian Cup in March.<\/p>\n
With their demands for protection an embarrassment for Iran’s leaders but lauded by US President Donald Trump, five later changed their minds and returned home.<\/p>\n
Pasandideh and Ramezanisadeh stayed, however, and were granted Australian citizenship at a ceremony on Wednesday overseen by interior minister Tony Burke.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday was a truly special and unforgettable day for me. I feel proud and deeply grateful to become an Australian citizen,” Ramezanisadeh said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“After everything we’ve been through and all the challenges we faced, this moment means more than words can express,” Pasandideh added.<\/p>\n
A week after seeking asylum, the pair was pictured smiling and training with Australian club Brisbane Roar, which on Wednesday congratulated the pair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SYDNEY: Two former Iranian women footballers said Thursday they were “proud” to have been granted Australian citizenship after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[188077,260752,188078,85,260751,46,105],"class_list":["post-576395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-atefeh-ramezanisadeh","tag-australian-citizenship","tag-fatemeh-pasandideh","tag-il","tag-iranian-women-footballers","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576395","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=576395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}