Iranian Women Footballers Withdraw Australian Asylum Bids Amid Pressure

The captain of the Iranian women's football team has withdrawn her bid for Australian asylum, Iran's state media says, making her the fifth member of the delegation to change her mind. Zahra Ghanbari will fly from Malaysia back to Iran, news agency IRNA reported on Sunday. Australian officials confirmed another member had dropped their asylum application but did not identify them. It comes a day after authorities reported three other women had withdrawn their claims. The footballers had originally sought sanctuary after concerns the team would face repercussions for staying silent during the country's anthem at their opening Asian Cup match. The latest withdrawal means that, of the seven to initially accept Australia's offer of humanitarian visas, only two now remain in the country as defectors. Human rights activists have said the women may have been pressured to reverse their decisions through threats against their families. Shiva Amini, an exiled former Iranian national futsal player, said she had received information that Iran's Football Federation, working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), had "placed intense and systemic pressure on the players' families in Iran". "Several of the players decided to go back because the threats against their families became unbearable and the intimidation was relentless," she wrote on X on Sunday. Iranian media reports hailed Ghanbari's decision, with IRNA saying she was "returning to the embrace of the homeland", while the semi-official Mehr news agency called it a "patriotic decision". On Saturday, three other members withdrew their bids for asylum, named by human rights activists in the Iranian diaspora as Zahra Soltan Meshkehkar, Mona Hamoudi and Zahra Sarbali. Confirming their decisions, Australia's home affairs minister said his government had done everything it could to ensure the women were given the chance to have a safe future in the country. "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," 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." Iran's sports ministry said in a statement that "the national spirit and patriotism of the Iranian women's national football team defeated the enemy's plans against this team", adding that Australia's government was "playing in Trump's field". IRGC-affiliated news agency Tasnim said the three 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". It said they had resisted "psychological warfare, extensive propaganda and seductive offers" in Australia. Australian minister Kristy McBain dismissed the statement as "propaganda". "I think our government's been very open with the Australian people about the steps that we've taken to ensure that these women in the Iranian soccer team and support staff had every opportunity to make their own decisions," she told ABC News. Last week, one player changed her mind, followed by the two players and one staff member who left Australia on Saturday. Concerns grew for the Iranian team after they refused to sing Iran's anthem in their opening Asian Cup match against South Korea on 2 March - which led to them being branded "wartime traitors" in Iran amid calls for a harsh punishment. The team did sing the anthem in their last two games before they were eliminated, leading critics to believe they had been told to sing by government officials accompanying them during the tournament. The other Iranian players left Australia on 10 March - two days after they were knocked out of the Women's Asian Cup. The football drama has unfolded against a backdrop of war in the Middle East after US-Israeli strikes on Iran prompted retaliatory attacks from Iran across the region.