Female Iranian footballers to return home

Three members of the women's national football team who had applied for asylum in Australia have decided to go back to Iran, the government said on Saturday.

Authorities granted humanitarian visas to seven Iranian players last week after they requested asylum, saying they feared persecution if they returned home after declining to sing the national anthem during a match at the AFC Women's Asian Cup.

So far, four of the seven footballers have chosen to leave Australia, while another reversed her earlier decision last week.

"After telling Australian officials they ⁠had made this decision the players were given repeated chances to talk about their options," Tony Burke said in a statement.

"While the Australian Government can ensure that opportunities are provided and communicated, we cannot remove the context in which the players are making these incredibly difficult decisions. Australians should be proud that it was in our country that these women experienced a nation presenting them with genuine choices and interacted with authorities seeking to help them," he added.

Iran's sports ministry also confirmed the news, first reported by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Tasnim News Agency. "The national spirit and patriotism of the Iranian women's national football team defeated the enemy's plans against this team," the statement said, also accusing Australia's government of 'playing in Trump's field'.

Tasnim reported that the three players were on their way to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to join the rest of the squad and were "returning to the warm embrace of their families and homeland after withdrawing their asylum application in Australia". The agency said they had resisted "psychological warfare, extensive propaganda and seductive offers".

This means that of the seven players who initially sought to remain in Australia, only three now remain as defectors. One of the players made the same decision to return to Iran on Wednesday. Hamoudi and Sarbali were among the original five who refused, after slipping past minders at the team's hotel on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane, last Monday, and being taken to a safe house by Australian Federal Police.

Zahra Soltan Meshkehkar, a member of the team's technical staff, was one of two more women from the group to seek asylum the next day. The other – Mohaddeseh Zolfi – changed her mind hours after being granted the right to stay and is understood to have already rejoined the team.

There were concerns in Australia that members of the team and their families might face repercussions in Iran after the players refused to sing the national anthem. One conservative commentator on Iranian state media accused them of being 'wartime traitors' and called for harsh punishment.

The team did sing the anthem in their last two games before being eliminated on Sunday, leading critics to believe they had been instructed to do so by government officials accompanying them during the tournament. The Iranian side's Asian Cup campaign began as the United States and Israel launched air strikes on Iran, killing the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. The team was eliminated from the tournament last Sunday.