Iran’s national soccer team is on a course of action with positive and negative effects.
Qatar 2022 marks the nation’s sixth participation in the World Cup. However, the Iranian government is heavily involved in the affairs of its football federation. As a result, Team Melli’s competition in the upcoming tournament against England, Wales and the United States has become a subordinate affair compared to the national turmoil currently unfolding in Iran.
The assassination of Mahsa Amini
For more than a dozen days, thousands of female-led protesters roamed the streets of Iran’s 31 provinces. These women are lionesses, unveiled in freedom. The gestures with open arms signify their free will, in solidarity with the death of Mahsa Amini. Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish woman beaten by Iran’s belligerent ‘morality police’. These are thugs clad in green uniforms and empowered as Shia Islamic prudes.
Last week, these sanctimonious forces worked on behalf of the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They detained Ms. Amini to harangue her with pontifications about Sharia Law, an exegesis fabricated outside the Koran. As a result, Ms. Amini suffered incurable pain, and after three days in detention, she died on September 16. Her death shocked the world. It draws international condemnation on the Islamic Republic. Her death left an indelible impression on former Bayern Munich striker Ali Karimi, among others.
Brave Persians calling for regime change
After mourning the deaths of innocent civilians, Ali Karimi called on the ‘IRGC’ to turn against the atavistic regime. As a result, the 2006 World Cup striker went into voluntary exile from Iran after receiving threats of imprisonment. Furthermore, Ali Karimi was banned from the nation after expressing his criticism of the barbarian dictatorship.
“Don’t be afraid of strong women. Perhaps the day will come when they will be your only army.”
Unfortunately, Team Melli players, such as striker Sardar Azmoun of Bayer Leverkusen, remain silent in the current wake of brutality from the Tinhorn authorities. For example, the Leverkusen striker expressed his feelings in a social media post that was later deleted. The post was a call to renounce violence.
Amid the chaos in Iran, Team Melli traveled to Austria to play their last warm-up matches before the World Cup against Uruguay and Senegal.
Iran national team shows solidarity in controversial friendlies
Last week, Iran’s impressive 1-0 victory over Uruguay sent a message to Group B. Especially as the USMNT, England and Wales all conceded losses and draws in their respective matches through friendlies and the Nations League. Central defender Hossein Kanaani proved to be a blocker, hitting Uruguayans Darwin Nunez and Luis Suarez on many plays.
More recently, Carlos Queiroz’s Team Melli were a formidable force against Senegal, a team brimming with talent. However, Iran conceded an own goal, but quickly recovered and leveled the match through Vahid Amiri’s cross, which was met by an Azmoun header. Overall, any success with Team Melli in the World Cup could have cryptic results, considering the ongoing cataclysm in Iran. Additionally, Team Melli has been banned from commenting on their nation’s turmoil until after the World Cup.
However, it remains to be seen how Team Melli shows solidarity in Qatar. After the 2009 ‘Green Movement’, protests sparked by a rigged presidential election, Iranian players like Ali Karimi wore green armbands in solidarity. As a result, the Iranian government forced the Bayern striker to resign from international duty, suppressing his free will. However, before the Iran-Senegal friendly began, the Melli team wore black sports jackets, masking the shield representing the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s soccer team wore black jackets to cover their country’s emblem during the national anthem. This is a great statement in support of the protests in Iran and they are extremely brave for doing so. pic.twitter.com/yV1JBGB1I9
— Fifty Shades of Serum (@davenewworld_2) September 28, 2022
Perhaps, during Qatar 2022, the players will follow in the footsteps of Esteghlal FC’s Mohammad Nikfas, whose head-shaving video went viral, reflecting masses of Iranian women, a women-led vanguard of secularism, fearlessly lighting flames to their veils. In addition, secular protesters are cutting their hair in homage to Ferdowsi’s ‘Book of Kings’, an epic poem of more than 60,000 lines. In the epic, women cut their hair as a sign of mourning.
Qatar 2022
Given the current turmoil in Iran, the World Cup has a lower status of importance. If Team Melli is successful in the tournament, they could make the Islamic Republic shine, considering their significant involvement in the federation. However, standing in front of the Islamic Republic’s national anthem at the World Cup is the antithesis of a player’s belief in human rights. Therefore, for Team Melli, Iran’s upcoming matches against England, Wales and the United States will be controversial moments.
However, Iran’s Kish Island is located in the Persian Gulf, less than 200 miles from Qatar. The nation of Iran is seething in an economy devastated by sanctions and the fallout from a mismanaged pandemic. The turmoil in Iran has extended beyond the battle for women’s rights. The efficacy behind the secular protests are the demands of a democracy where sovereign power rests in an individual’s consciousness of free will, not in the tainted hands of a Shia theocracy that flouts human rights in the name of extreme greed. .
PHOTO: IMAGO / GEPA Images
