Iran women’s football team arrive home after crossing Turkish border

IGDIR, Turkey - The Iranian women’s national football team crossed the Turkish border to travel to their home country on March 18, including several players who withdrew an asylum bid in Australia.

The players emerged from Igdir Airport in Turkey pulling their luggage and chatted in front of the terminal before boarding a bus to the border.

One of them briefly smiled and waved at a TV camera before the bus departed. After a trip of around two hours to the frontier, they went through passport control at the Gurbulak border gate before crossing over into Iran.

Seven members of the delegation had sought sanctuary in Australia last week after being branded “traitors” in Iran for refusing to sing the national anthem before their opening game at the Women’s Asian Cup.

But five later changed their minds, including captain Zahra Ghanbari.

The team arrived in Istanbul on March 17 from Oman, then flew to the eastern city of Igdir before travelling home overland.

Wearing Iranian national team tracksuits, the women could earlier be seen leaving the airport for the Gurbulak-Bazargan crossing, while lies about 100km to the southeast.

The players arrived in Turkey via Oman and Kuala Lumpur, having left Australia where they were competing in the Asian Cup.

“I am missing my family,” one of them told AFP on March 16 at Kuala Lumpur airport.

In a post on X, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the players and their support team were “children of the homeland, and the people of Iran embrace them”.

He said by returning, they had “disappointed the enemies (of Iran) and did not surrender to deception and intimidation by anti-Iran elements”.

In the end, only two of the players remained in Australia.

Rights groups have accused Tehran of pressuring athletes abroad by threatening relatives with the seizure of property if they defect or make statements against the Islamic republic.

Iranian authorities had in turn accused Australia of pressuring the players to stay. AFP