The Iranian women's national soccer team crossed the Turkish-Iranian border Wednesday, completing a fraught journey home from Australia after five of the six players who had sought asylum subsequently withdrew their claims.
Members of the Iranian women's national soccer team outside the airport after they arrived in the eastern Turkish city of Igdir, as they travel to their home country after five players withdrew the asylum claims they had lodged in Australia over safety concerns about returning home due to not singing the national anthem at a women's Asian Cup match earlier this month, in Turkey, March 18, 2026. Reuters/Ali Ihsan Ozturk
The Iranian women's national soccer team crossed the Turkish-Iranian border Wednesday, completing a fraught journey home from Australia after five of the six players who had sought asylum subsequently withdrew their claims.
The players flew from Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul, then to Igdir in eastern Turkey, before boarding a bus to the Gurbulak border crossing and entering Iran. One player briefly smiled and waved at a camera before departure, a fleeting, ambiguous gesture that said everything and nothing.
Australia had granted humanitarian visas to six players and one support staff member who feared persecution upon returning to Iran, fears triggered after several players refused to sing the national anthem during an Asian Cup match, days after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television wasted no time labelling them "wartime traitors."
Yet five of the six asylum seekers reversed course and returned home. The official explanation - a desire to be "embraced by families and homeland" according to the Iranian Football Association - barely conceals the more likely reality: the regime applied pressure on the players' families inside Iran, a well-documented tactic used to force dissidents and athletes abroad to return. When the choice is between your own freedom and your family's safety, the decision is rarely truly free.
Two players remain in Australia and have been pictured training with a local A-League club, suggesting that for some, the fear of returning outweighs even the pressure on those left behind.
Their fate, and the fate of those who returned, will be closely watched.
In Iran's current wartime climate, being labelled a traitor is not a minor accusation. It is a life-altering one.
By Ramin Razavi and Reuters
Iran has warned the United States that it would respond forcefully to an Israeli offensive on a mountainous ridge in southern Lebanon where Iranian military personnel are holed up alongside Hezbollah fighters, three officials briefed on the message told Reuters.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the renewed U.S. campaign against Iran would not continue for "too long" after the biggest exchange of fire between Tehran and Washington since July.
Top aides to President Donald Trump are pushing to keep the Iran war from escalating before November's midterm elections to staunch Republican electoral losses, four people familiar with the discussions said, a strategy already under strain as the U.S. and Iran exchanged back-and-forth attacks overnight.
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