Members of the Iranian women’s national soccer team are risking the high likelihood of imprisonment and even death to return to their country after the regime expended its fury on the athletes’ families.
A number of the players claimed asylum in Australia after refusing to salute or sing the Iranian regime’s anthem at the Women’s Asian Cup as the U.S. and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury. But while some of the players were able to escape their hotel and claim asylum, tragically, the regime back in Iran targeted the women’s loved ones to such an extent that some are going to sacrifice themselves to end it.
The New York Post reported that multiple Iranian soccer players who had claimed asylum have now withdrawn their requests, which had gained attention not only from Australian authorities, but from President Donald Trump. Team captain Zahra Ghanbari was the latest to give in to the disgusting pressure campaign from the Iranian regime.
Exiled former Iranian soccer player Shiva Amini posted on March 15, “According to information I received from Australia, the Iranian Football Federation, working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard IRGC, has placed intense and systematic pressure on the players’ families in Iran.” As a reminder, the IRGC is quite literally a terrorist organization. But it also functions as the military and domestic enforcement for the terror-sponsoring Iranian regime.
Since the IRGC is a terrorist organization, it is not surprising to hear from Amini, “They [IRGC and the federation] have even targeted the family of Zahra Ghanbari. Despite the fact that she has just lost her father, authorities are putting pressure on her mother. This shows the level of cruelty and desperation they are willing to use to force these athletes to comply.”
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The most horrible part of all is that there is no guarantee the regime will not imprison or kill both the athletes and their families anyway after their return home. “Through the team’s manager, who presented herself to the players as someone they could trust and rely on, they were able to persuade some of the players to return. Several of the players decided to go back because the threats against their families became unbearable and the intimidation was relentless,” Amini relayed the heartbreaking details. She concluded:
However, a number of the players are still there. They are under enormous pressure and they urgently need support and protection. The situation has become extremely serious, as the threats and intimidation against their families continue to escalate.
I think what this also highlights is the absolute necessity of regime change in Iran. The regime there is never going to stop killing its own people and targeting Americans so long as it exists with any degree of power. It is not safe or reasonable either for Persians or for Americans to allow the successors of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to retain their positions, because these people are fanatical Islamic ideologues who believe anything is justified in pursuit of their goal of global sharia. That’s why they killed 40,000 of their own people earlier this year, and why they have been attacking Americans and Israelis for half a century.
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