Fears Iran will milk return of player for propaganda, pressure on teammates

Members of the Iranian diaspora fear the Tehran regime could increase its pressure on the soccer players who accepted asylum in Australia after one of the women decided to return to Iran in a shock reversal that set off a security scare.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke revealed one of the two women from the Iranian soccer delegation who were granted an emergency humanitarian visa on Wednesday had abruptly changed her mind and will return to Iran.

The other six women who defected had to be whisked away to another secure location after 21-year-old player Mohaddeseh Zolfi contacted Iranian officials on Wednesday morning and asked to be collected.

Iranian-Australian community leaders believe the Tehran regime will use the about-face as a propaganda victory and pressure the other women to follow suit after portraying the defectors as being kidnapped, rather than protected, by Australia.

Burke told parliamentary question time he had been informed on Wednesday morning that Zolfi had changed her mind less than an hour after he publicly announced her defection.

“Unfortunately, in making that decision, she’d been advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy to get collected,” he said. “As a result of that, it meant that the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was.”

Burke said he had to move quickly to ensure the safety of the others.

“I immediately gave the instruction for people to be moved, and that’s been dealt with immediately.”

The minister said department officials made sure Zolfi was free to make her own decision, and he respected her right to choose.

It is not known when Zolfi will leave Australia.

“They are clearly being threatened. I am worried for the rest of them,” Tina Kordostami, a leader in Sydney’s Iranian-Australian community who travelled to the Gold Coast to help the women escape, said. “The regime is clearly escalating matters at its end.”

Sara Rafiee, a human rights activist, said: “This shows the amount of pressure they are under. I’m concerned for the other girls.”

The head of the Iranian Football Federation, Mehdi Taj, went on state TV to accuse Australia of coercing the players into staying, a charge the federal government has vigorously denied.

The Iranian government has claimed the women would be welcomed back to Iran and did not need to fear punishment, accusing Australia of “frightening the members of the Iranian women’s football team and pressuring them to seek political asylum in Australia”.

“To the dear ladies of our homeland on the women’s football team, I say: Iran awaits you with open arms. Do not worry. Return home,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ismail Baghaei said in a post on X.

“They killed 170 of our innocent elementary school girls in a two-stage attack with Tomahawk missiles in the city of Minab, and now they are trying to take our female athletes hostage under the guise of “rescuing” them. What hypocrisy and audacity!!”

Burke said that Home Affairs officials had met privately with all the players and support staff to explain their legal rights to seek protection in Australia before their departure to Kuala Lumpur late on Tuesday night.

The plight of the team – denounced as traitors on Iranian TV for failing to sing the national anthem as the war broke out back home – made international headlines, but on Wednesday the regime’s foreign affairs ministry said the women were safe and would be welcomed home.

Zolfi and support staffer Zahra Soltan Moshkehkar stayed in Brisbane on Tuesday and reunited with the five players who escaped from their handlers on Monday night.

“There was no way we were going to see people make it all the way to a plane without having them away from every minder,” Burke told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

“All the players remaining and most of the support people were taken into interview rooms without any minders present, simply themselves and the Department of Home Affairs and an interpreter, and they were given a choice in that situation.

“What we made sure of was there was no rushing, there was no pressure. Everything was about ensuring the dignity for those obviously the one thing, the one pressure we couldn’t take away.”

Burke said one player had boarded the flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur at the last minute because she was speaking to family members in Iran for advice on what to do.

“We weren’t sure which way that person would go. That individual, though, ultimately made their own decision [to leave],” Burke said.

“There is a lot of work, including me sending messages back and forth from my plane, trying to find the right numbers, and ultimately getting somebody to call a home affairs number from overseas so that the conversation could happen. But the people who that instructor wanted to talk to were all made available.

“And there was also, from our perspective, no pressure to have to get on the plane at all.”

Burke said he had told exhausted and dejected Home Affairs officials that they had not failed because more women had not elected to stay in Australia.

“Australia’s objective here was not to force people to make a particular decision. We’re not that sort of nation,” he said.

Burke said he was glad some of the officials travelling with the delegation had returned to Iran, as he did not believe they were of sufficient character to receive asylum in Australia.

Anyone who played a role in trying to intimidate the women into returning to Iran would not be welcome in the country, he said.

“There were some people leaving Australia who I am glad they’re no longer in Australia,” he said.

Burke said the government had rejected visa applications from some officials before the Women’s Asian Cup began because of their ties to the hardline regime in Tehran.

“People who are connected to the IRGC were not granted visas,” Burke said.

The group, known as the Lionesses, touched down in Kuala Lumpur from Sydney just before 8am, local time.

There, they were met by Iran’s ambassador to Malaysia, Valiollah Mohammadi Nasrabadi, at the exit of the plane’s walkway.

Maani Taghizadeh, co-founder of the Iranian Patriots Association, said he and other members of the Iranian diaspora were ready and willing to welcome the women.

“We want to send them a clear message that they are safe in Australia now and we will support them as much as we can in Brisbane and Sydney,” Taghizadeh said. “They have decided to join the Sun and Lion Revolution for the liberation of Iran.”

“But we do not know where they are,“he said. “They should be in a safe place with the AFP, and we are very open to knowing where, so that we can be in touch with them.”

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