The Iranian women’s soccer team was greeted with a welcome home ceremony as they touched down in Iran on the back of an Asian Cup campaign that ended with several players seeking asylum in Australia.
That didn’t stop the returning players from receiving a heroes welcome though, with fans waving flags, asking for signatures and giving players bouquets on their return on Wednesday.
While seven members initially sought asylum in Australia, all but two rejoined the team in Kuala Lumpur before the squad flew to Oman and then home.
And speaking about the ordeal after touching down, midfielder Fatemeh Shaban claimed Australian police had pressured the players to seek asylum.
“When they checked our passports, each of us went into a room with a police officer. At first, when they took my hand and led me away, I was a bit scared, but I told myself it’s OK,” Shaban said in translated comments on Iranian TV, shared online by Iranian researcher and writer Arya Yadeghaar.
“Then we sat down; we went through a few doors, entered a room, and I sat. The security agent called someone on a phone, and I realised they wanted to ask us again: ‘If you go back, it’s like this (dangerous) … your country is at war, etc.
“They were asking a bunch of very strange questions, hoping I might say, ‘No, I don’t know. I am not sure of returning’.
“They kept asking those same kinds of questions. He then asked me, ‘Do you want to call your family? You can contact them right now to decide if you want to stay or not.’ As soon as he said that, I told the (the translator), ‘Tell him I don’t want to stay. Anyone who wanted to stay has already stayed’,” she continued.
“I didn’t even let him finish reading the rest of his questions, I just said: ‘I want to return to Iran’.
“Right then, I got a bad feeling in my heart; I was a bit scared because I really wanted to go back to Iran — I wanted to go to my family, my homeland.”
It comes after an Iranian official accused Australia of taking members of the Iranian women’s football team “hostage”.
Referring to the six players and one support staffer who recently claimed asylum in Australia – all but two of which have since returned to Iran – a spokesperson from Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the ABC’s 7.30 that the women were “forced” to stay in Australia.
Esmaeil Baghaei argued that the footballers “didn’t seek asylum, they were forced to, they were coerced to, they didn’t do it voluntarily,” – a claim host Sarah Ferguson immediately shot down as “outrageous”.
“It was a free choice on their part, and one can only assume they have had some justification for doing so. What is your evidence they were coerced?” she fired back.
Mr Baghaei said he was quoting the Iranian team’s coach, who claimed the women were invited into a room under a false pretext and had asylum papers put beside them.
“And then the Australian minister posed for a photo with them,” he said, “This was a shameful sham posture.”
Two Iranian female players, Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh, have chosen to remain in Australia and have been seen training with the Brisbane Roar’s women’s side.
