03/15/26 10:50:00
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03/15 22:48 CDT 5th member of Iranian women's soccer team gives up asylum in
Australia
5th member of Iranian women's soccer team gives up asylum in Australia
By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) --- A fifth member of the Iranian women's soccer team
who accepted a refugee visa to stay in Australia has left the country, the
Australian government said on Monday.
The player's departure shortly before midnight on Sunday leaves two of an
initial seven squad members in Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke's
office said.
The Iranian authorities have welcomed the women's change of heart as a victory
against Australia and U.S. President Donald Trump. The Iranian diaspora in
Australia blame pressure from Tehran.
Burke reported on Sunday that two players and a team support staff member had
left Sydney for Malaysia on Saturday.
Iran's team arrived in Australia for the Women's Asian Cup last month, before
the war in the Middle East began on Feb. 28.
Initially, six players and a support staff member from a squad list of 26
players accepted humanitarian visas to stay in Australia before the rest of the
Iranian contingent flew from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on March 10.
Another later changed her mind and left Australia.
The rest of the team has remained in Kuala Lumpur since they left Australia.
Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite described the women's plight
in Australia as a "very complex situation."
"We've been working very, very closely with them, but obviously this is a very
complex situation. These are deeply personal decisions, and the government
respects the decisions of those that have chosen to return. And we continue to
offer support to the two that are remaining," Thistlethwaite told Sky News
television.
"They're being given all the support of the Australian government and indeed
the diaspora community to remain here and settle in Australia," he added.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a political scientist at Sydney's Macquarie University who
spent more than two years in Iranian prisons on spying charges from 2018 to
2020, said "winning the propaganda war" had overshadowed the women's welfare.
"The high stakes made the Iranian regime sit up and pay attention and try to
force their hand in response, in my view," Moore-Gilbert told the Australian
Broadcasting Corp.
"But it wasn't necessarily to be known that this story would blow up and become
the international story that it did. But I do think in this case, had these
woman quietly sought asylum without that publicity around them, it's possible
that the Islamic Republic officials might have, as they have in the cases of
other Iranian sports people in the past who've defected ... simply allowed that
to happen," she added.
Iran's Tasnim News Agency said after the three left Australia on Saturday and
that they were "returning to the warm embrace of their family and homeland."
Concerns about the team's safety in Iran heightened when the players didn't
sing the Iranian national anthem before their first match.
The Australian government was urged to help the women by Iranian groups in
Australia and by Trump.
The Iranian news agency described the women's return to the team as the
"disgraceful failure of the American-Australian project and another failure for
Trump."
Some members of the Iranian diaspora in Australia have accused the support
staffer who initially accepted asylum then left Australia on Saturday of
spreading Iranian government propaganda to her teammates via text messages.
Thistlethwaite said there was no evidence to support the theory that the
staffer had persuaded others to leave. All those who had remained in Australia
after the team had left were "genuine asylum seekers," he said.
Thistlethwaite said the women had been taken to an undisclosed "safe
destination" once they had decided to stay in Australia.
"They've been able to communicate with family and with others. I understand
that some of them did make contact with the Iranian embassy here in Australia.
We can't cut off communications for them," Thistlethwaite said.
The embassy in the national capital Canberra remains staffed, despite the
Australian government expelling the ambassador last year.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cut off diplomatic relations with
Iran in August after announcing that intelligence officials had concluded that
the Revoluntionary Guard had directed arson attacks on a Sydney kosher food
company and Melbourne's Adass Israel Synagogue in 2024.
Australian-Iranian Society of Victoria vice-president Kambiz Razmara said the
women who accepted asylum had been under pressure from the Tehran regime.
"They've had to make decisions at the spur of the moment with very little
information and they've had to react to the circumstance," Razmara said. "I'm
surprised that they've decided to go, but I'm actually not surprised because I
appreciate the pressures that they're experiencing."
___
This story has been edited to correct that Macquarie University is in Sydney,
not Melbourne.
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