{"id":5449,"date":"2026-03-14T22:38:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T22:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/14\/three-members-of-iranian-womens-football-team-pull-australia-asylum-bids\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T22:38:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T22:38:46","slug":"three-members-of-iranian-womens-football-team-pull-australia-asylum-bids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/14\/three-members-of-iranian-womens-football-team-pull-australia-asylum-bids\/","title":{"rendered":"Three members of Iranian women\u2019s football team pull Australia asylum bids"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Seven members of the Iranian football delegation sought asylum, with four now known to have withdrawn applications.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Two more Iranian female footballers and a member of their support staff have reportedly withdrawn requests for asylum in Australia, which were granted over fears they might be punished upon their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/3\/12\/how-irans-women-footballers-took-asylum-in-australia-and-what-happens-next\">return home<\/a>\u00a0after the team refused to sing Iran\u2019s national anthem at the Asian Cup tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported on Saturday that the three had \u201cgiven up on their asylum application in Australia and are currently heading to Malaysia\u201d, posting a picture of the women allegedly boarding a plane.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/9\/crowd-chants-save-our-girls-at-bus-carrying-iran-womens-team\">Crowd chants \u2018save our girls\u2019 at bus carrying Iran women\u2019s team<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/3\/8\/iran-womens-football-team-sing-anthem-amid-safety-concerns-during-war\">Iran women\u2019s football team sing anthem, exit Asian Cup amid safety concerns<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/3\/6\/fifpro-urge-afc-to-protect-iran-womens-team-after-traitors-state-tv-jibe\">FIFA, AFC urged to protect Iran women footballers after \u2018traitors\u2019 threat<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The news was confirmed on Sunday morning in a statement from Australia\u2019s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOvernight, three members of the Iranian Women\u2019s Football Team made the decision to join the rest of the team on their journey back to Iran,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter telling Australian officials they had made this decision, the players were given repeated chances to talk about their options.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Iranian team has been in Australia to participate in a football tournament held in the Gold Coast Stadium in Queensland, when the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran on February 28.<\/p>\n<p>The initial attack killed Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other leaders.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, an estimated 1,444 Iranians have been killed since the war began, including more than 170 people, mostly schoolgirls, who were inside a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/12\/who-bombed-the-iranian-girls-school-killing-more-than-170-what-we-know\">primary school<\/a> in the city of Minab.<\/p>\n<p>After refusing to sing the Iranian national anthem at their first match, players on the Iranian women\u2019s football team were branded \u201ctraitors\u201d by an IRIB presenter.<\/p>\n<p>In comments that went viral, the presenter said that the players\u2019 actions amounted to the \u201cpinnacle of dishonour\u201d and that they should be \u201cdealt with more severely\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The comments prompted FIFPRO, the global organisation representing professional footballers, to urge FIFA and AFC to \u201cundertake all necessary steps\u201d for the Iranian\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/3\/6\/fifpro-urge-afc-to-protect-iran-womens-team-after-traitors-state-tv-jibe\">players\u2019 protection<\/a>, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/3\/9\/fear-uncertainty-surround-iran-womens-football-teams-return-home\">fears for their safety<\/a> mounted after Australian media reported they were being monitored by Iranian government officials.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/3\/9\/trump-says-australia-has-taken-care-of-iranian-women-football-players\">Five of the players<\/a>, including captain Zahra Ghanbari, slipped away from the team hotel under the cover of darkness to claim asylum in Australia. A sixth player and a support staffer claimed asylum before the rest of the team flew out of Sydney earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>But one of the players <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/3\/11\/australia-grants-asylum-to-2-more-members-of-iranian-womens-football-team\">withdrew<\/a> her request earlier in the week and linked up with the rest of the team, who were believed to still be in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, awaiting their return to Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Burke told lawmakers that the player, later identified as Mohadese Zolfigol, changed her decision on the advice of her teammates and was \u201cencouraged to contact the Iranian embassy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s governing football body has accused Australia of kidnapping the players and forcing them to forsake their home nation against their will.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seven members of the Iranian football delegation sought asylum, with four now known to have withdrawn applications. Two more Iranian female footballers and a member of their support staff have reportedly withdrawn requests for asylum in Australia, which were granted over fears they might be punished upon their return home\u00a0after the team refused to sing &#8230; <a title=\"Three members of Iranian women\u2019s football team pull Australia asylum bids\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/14\/three-members-of-iranian-womens-football-team-pull-australia-asylum-bids\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Three members of Iranian women\u2019s football team pull Australia asylum bids\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}