Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the monarchy, has billed himself as the man to lead a democratic transition to a secular Iran as the theocratic regime fights to survive.<\/p>\n
\u2018Save our girls\u2019 <\/p>\n
Iranian players refused to sing as their anthem was played before a game against South Korea two days after the US and Israel began a war against the country.<\/p>\n
In response, a presenter on Iranian state television branded the side \u201cwartime traitors\u201d.<\/p>\n
Crowds banged drums and shouted \u201cregime change for Iran\u201d as they gathered outside the Gold Coast stadium where the side played their last match over the weekend.<\/p>\n
They then surrounded the Iranian team bus, chanting \u201clet them go\u201d and \u201csave our girls\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Monday, an AFP journalist saw members of the team speaking on the phones from their balcony of their hotel.<\/p>\n
Canberra has so far declined to comment on whether it could offer the players asylum.<\/p>\n
Asked about their case on Sunday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia \u201cstands in solidarity\u201d with the people of Iran.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Australia\u2019s Home Affairs department told AFP it \u201ccannot comment on the circumstances of individuals\u201d.<\/p>\n
Amnesty International campaigner Zaki Haidari said they faced persecution, or worse, if they were sent home.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of these team members probably have had their families already threatened,\u201d Haidari told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThem going back … who knows what sort of punishment they will receive?\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being heavily monitored, the side would have a \u201csmall window of opportunity\u201d to seek asylum at the airport, he said.<\/p>\n
Author J.K. Rowling said, \u201cPlease, protect these young women\u201d, in a post on social media.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s embassy in Australia did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the monarchy, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,35477,173355,85,9218,115,61585,124,29411,5213,2347,17240,305,42,78,16609,168147,4507,10543,9878,9097,3556,17154,43,30308,25394,112262,173356,120438,7187,165,61,40,38,41,39,11226,6746,1455,2834],"class_list":["post-320615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-anthem","tag-asylum","tag-australia","tag-before","tag-calls","tag-consequences","tag-could","tag-dire","tag-football","tag-grant","tag-grow","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-iran","tag-iranian","tag-late","tag-match","tag-monday","tag-must","tag-national","tag-nations","tag-news","tag-protect","tag-protest","tag-refusal","tag-shah","tag-sing","tag-team","tag-their","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-urged","tag-visiting","tag-warning","tag-womens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}