The Iranian soccer players who rejected exile begin their return to their country, but it is not known how they will enter

About twenty members of the team arrived in Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday night, and had stayed in a hotel in the Malaysian capital until now. It is unknown if and how the team will travel from Oman to Iran, as the airspace remains closed due to war.

The team arrived in Australia before the war broke out in Iran and, during the opening match against South Korea on March 2, they avoided singing the Iranian national anthem, which led to them being branded “traitors” by television in the Persian country.

Given the controversy and fears of possible reprisals in Iran, seven members of the team requested humanitarian asylum in Australia, but five ended up retracting as the days went by, and only two remain in the southern country.

The team has 26 players on the roster, including the two who have stayed in Australia. It is unknown exactly how many other people, including technical staff and others, had traveled to the southern country for the Asian Cup.

The women did sing the anthem in the second and third matches, before being eliminated by the Philippines on March 8. US President Donald Trump urged Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to grant them asylum, which Australian authorities offered to the entire team.

The Iranian team’s qualification for the women’s Asian Cup, the first since 2002, was celebrated by activists who defend gender equality, especially the oppression imposed by the Iranian regime on women, such as the mandatory use of the veil in public spaces.

This imposition was one of the triggers for the protests recorded at the end of last year and the beginning of this year in Iran, which resulted in 3,117 deaths recognized by the Islamic regime, although human rights organizations triple that balance.