‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’: Cheers after five Iranian players granted asylum after escape
Updated , first published
Five Iranian soccer players, including team captain Zahra Ghanbari, have been granted humanitarian visas to stay in Australia after a daring escape from their minders at a Gold Coast hotel on Monday night.
“Once everything had been signed off last night, there were lots of photos, lots of celebrating, and then a spontaneous outbreak of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi oi,” a smiling Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced at a press conference at Brisbane Airport on Tuesday morning.
“These women are great athletes, great people, and they’re going to feel very much at home in Australia.”
Revealing that the government had been in secret talks with the players for days, Burke acknowledged that fleeing was a “difficult decision” and assured the remaining 15 or so members of the team that they would be welcome if they wished to stay.
“Even though the offer continues to be there for other members of the team, it is quite possible and indeed likely that not every woman in the team will make a decision to take up the opportunity that Australia would offer to them,” Burke said.
“What matters here is that they have the best agency they can over those decisions, and so we’re making sure that the opportunity to seek assistance is there. But I don’t want to begin to imagine how difficult that decision is for each of the individual women, but certainly last night, it was joy, it was relief, and people were very excited about embarking on a life in Australia.”
The five players - captain Zahra Ghanbari and teammates Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramezanizadeh, and Mona Hamoudi - are now under the protection of the Australian Federal Police and have given permission for the publication of their names and faces.
They were condemned in Iran as traitors after they failed to sing the Iranian national anthem at their first match, escalating moves to provide assistance because of the risk they would face serious punishment and possible executions once they returned.
Exiled Crown Prince Reza Palavi named the women as he paid tribute to them last night.
News of the matter prompted US President Donald Trump to intervene overnight, first by demanding on social media that Australia give the women asylum, and then by speaking with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“He’s on it!” Trump posted after their conversation. “Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way. Some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.
“In any event, the prime minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation.”
Less than two hours earlier, Trump had warned Albanese he would be making a “terrible humanitarian mistake” if he allowed the team to be forced back to Iran, and offered to give the women asylum in the US if Australia would not.
“Everyone is so happy for the girls. They would not have been safe if they went home,” said Shahzad Shirkhanzadeh, an active member of the Iranian-Australian community.
She praised the government for moving swiftly to ensure the players had the option to seek asylum in Australia before being forced to return to Iran.
As news broke of the escape, members of Australia’s Iranian diaspora danced and sang on the street at the Gold Coast location where they’d held a vigil for the team.
Protesters reported that Iranian officials were searching the lobby and grounds of the Royal Pines Resort on Monday night.
The players’ dramatic escape could have major political implications as the hardline regime in Tehran fights against the US and Israel to hold on to power in a war that has spread throughout the Middle East.
Iranian state television presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi last week accused the team of dishonour for not singing the national anthem before their first match against South Korea last Monday, branding them “wartime traitors” who must be “dealt with more severely”.
There appear to be at least 20 women in the team, including substitutes, and it is unknown when the rest of the team is due to leave Australia.
Members of the team gave what appeared to be an SOS hand signal from their team bus on Sunday night as advocates pleaded for the Australian government to do everything possible to allow them to stay in Australia.
The Iranian team, known as the Lionesses, played their final match of the Women’s Asian Cup on the Gold Coast on Sunday night, losing 2-0 to the Philippines.
Footage taken after the match shows at least one woman on the bus appearing to make the international help sign to a crowd of protesters outside.
The gesture is performed by holding one hand up, tucking the thumb into the palm, and folding the fingers down over it.
A parliamentary inquiry on February 26 heard that the team’s entourage included suspected members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a listed terrorist organisation.
On Friday, after Australia beat Iran 4-0, the Matildas swapped jerseys with the Lionesses, and Australia’s captain Sam Kerr paid tribute to their struggles and bravery.
More than 71,000 people have signed a petition since Friday, calling for the government to ensure that no member of the team departs Australia while credible fears for their safety remain.
