Feared surveillance and intimidation during Asia Cup in Australia
If you’ve ever wondered what state-sponsored coercive control looks like, look no further than the tragic case of the Iranian women’s football team.
It is extraordinary that Australians have witnessed Iranian players who came peacefully to our country to play football with their beloved Matildas and other Asian Cup teams, being openly surveilled and intimidated by members of their own government.
According to reports, the women are being monitored and controlled by members of the Iranian government, possibly the infamous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who arrived as part of the Iran tour team.
Iranian activists in Australia say women are in mortal danger after staging a silent protest against their regime by refusing to sing their national anthem before their match against South Korea last week.
Following this brave act of peaceful resistance, Iranian state television host Mohammad Reza Shahbazi accused the team of dishonor and branded them “wartime traitors” who “should have been dealt with more harshly”.
This is not even a veiled threat, coming from the spokesman of a government that massacred tens of thousands of its citizens as they demonstrated in the streets in January.
Watching the Iranian women play against the Matildas on Thursday felt strange and somehow wrong.
Unlike other Asian Cup matches, which were challenging and enjoyable, it was impossible not to notice that the victims of the brutal patriarchal regime were playing under pressure.
The women looked physically uncomfortable in the humid environment of the Gold Coast.
They had too many injuries. They nervously tugged at the long-sleeved shirts and tights they wore under their regular football jerseys to keep their flesh from showing.
But the sadness on their faces was much worse; They did not enjoy the game at all and could not score a goal.
The team did not win any matches and did not score a single point throughout the tournament.
As their bus left through a bank of media and sympathetic protesters Sunday night after their final game. One of the women was caught on camera making the “SOS” sign.
This was an incredibly tragic gesture by women in an unthinkably difficult situation for any Australian; They know they face severe state-sponsored punishment if they return, but if they somehow seek asylum in Australia, the consequences for their families in Iran could be the worst that could happen.
Some of the group are believed to be mothers with children in Iran.
The team arrived in Australia approximately two days before the United States attacked their homeland.
Since then, none of them have been able to contact their loved ones at home or receive assurances of their safety.
This extraordinary geopolitical drama is playing out in the sovereign territory of Australia; We follow the tactics that the Iranian state uses in our country, but mostly we do not have the power to do anything about it.
This is a country with which we cut off diplomatic relations; It is a country that sponsors terrorism on our shores.
The Albanian government was cautious about the women’s possible asylum claims. Any steps taken on this front must take place behind closed doors.
But more generally, the government has so far tried to walk a suspiciously thin line on the conflict; He offered support for the overthrow of the theocratic regime, but then expressed his desire for a reduction in conflict.
This rhetoric appears aimed at keeping the Trump administration on side while insisting to the Australian public that we are not really involved in the war, which experts consider illegal.
However, Australian personnel were on board the US submarine that torpedoed an Iranian ship anchored in international waters off the coast of Sri Lanka. We were asked Helping some Gulf Countries targeted by Iran’s drone attacks.
The AUKUS pact binds us to the United States indefinitely, both militarily and geopolitically. Rising oil and fertilizer prices are set to worsen inflation for all consumers, and the Australian stock market lost more than $110 billion in morning trade.
And now innocent women from Iran are apparently being threatened by state escorts right in front of every Australian.
