Why won’t US activists speak up for the tortured Iran women’s soccer team?

An athlete’s silent act of dissent can turn both her and her family into targets of intimidation under the rule of Iran’s radical Islamist regime.

After refusing to sing the Islamic Republic’s anthem before a match in Australia, seven members of Iran’s women’s national soccer team sought asylum there, making a desperate choice no athlete should ever face.

After the regime issued threats against the seven and jailed their families, five later withdrew their claims and left.

And yet from the global capital of women’s soccer, there has been no public solidarity.

American stars who never miss a chance to speak about women’s sports, equality and courage, like Megan Rapinoe, have had nothing to say as Iranian players risk exile, prison and retaliation for the smallest act of defiance.

The regime’s campaign of terror against dissidents does not spare the athletes it forces to compete under its flag, subjecting them to bans, interrogation, and detention if they display any measure of resistance.

Boxer Sadaf Khadem remained in France after an arrest warrant was issued in 2019 when she fought without gear the regime considered necessary under its Islamic dress code.

Footballer Shiva Amini was banned from Iran’s national team in 2017 after appearing abroad without wearing a hijab.

Olympic taekwondo medalist Kimia Alizadeh ultimately defected to Germany in 2020, saying Iranian athletes live under constant pressure and surveillance.

The 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising that swept Iran accelerated this defiance.

Climber Elnaz Rekabi returned from Seoul that year after competing without a headscarf and was immediately forced into a state-managed apology spectacle and placed under house arrest.

Handball player Razieh Janbaz was barred from leaving the country after she backed the protest movement and posted unveiled photos.

After speed skater Niloufar Mardani competed in Istanbul without the mandatory hijab, Iranian authorities condemned her and removed her from the national team.

Taekwondo competitor and gymnastics coach Haniyeh Shariati Roudposhti was detained in Tehran in 2023 after appearing in public without compulsory hijab.

Borrowing a page from North Korea, Tehran preys on the families when it fails to silence the athlete.

Authorities detained Rekabi’s brother as pressure mounted for her to return home.

In the view of the Islamic Republic’s leaders, women athletes are not ambassadors; they are a problem to be contained.

Senior clerics have stated that allowing Iranian women to compete internationally is a “disgrace.”

Local religious representatives of the supreme leader have condemned women cheering at sporting events as “a manifestation of sin” and a form of “moral corruption.”

Few athletes in the world are more comfortable using their platform for social causes than America’s women’s soccer stars, which makes their silence here all the more jarring.

In America, women’s soccer players fight over real issues like pay, recognition and viewership — legitimate battles in their own right.

Rapinoe and teammates knelt during the national anthem in 2016 in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, dominating headlines for days.

And when their activism moves into the courtroom, it is backed by the protections of a free society.

In 2019, members of the women’s national team sued the US Soccer Federation over equal pay, a case they ultimately won in 2022, using their World Cup victory celebrations to amplify the message across national television.

Iran’s female athletes have no courts to which they can turn to air their grievances.

Despite their achievements, they are subject to the same intrusive control of their lives as other Iranian women.

If women’s sports solidarity means anything, it has to include women who risk everything just to play, speak or stay silent.

Otherwise it is not solidarity. It is branding.

Janatan Sayeh is the Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.