Amini’s death has led to widespread protest and acts of rebellion throughout Iran, with women removing headscarves and cutting their hair on various social media platforms. Zobeir Niknafs, a player with Tehran-based Esteghlal, published an Instagram video this week in which he shaved his head in a display of solidarity with the women’s protests.
It is against this backdrop that, according to sources, high-ranking government officials in Tehran insisted on the game between Iran and Uruguay being played behind closed doors due to the risk of the sizeable Iranian community in Austria using the fixture to demonstrate against the government. Next Tuesday’s game against Senegal, also in Austria in a place called Maria Enzersdorf, will also be played behind closed doors.
The nervousness of the regime is likely to extend to the World Cup, with Iran in a politically-charged group alongside the United States and England, but tickets for games against both nations are already nearly sold out, so there will be no safety net of empty stands in Qatar.
But for some activists, the links between the Iranian regime and its national sports teams are so intertwined that they believe Iran should be barred from competing in the international arena.
“Voria Ghafouri, the captain of the Esteghlal team, was not only removed from the team, but his picture was not allowed to be shown on Iranian television,” Pashaei said. “For these reasons, I believe that a government that does not believe in human values and human rights and uses their sports for ‘sports washing’ does not deserve to be in the international sports community.
“The 86 million people of Iran, and especially the young women of Iran, deserve better.”
