How Iran Turns Sport into Propaganda
How the Islamic Republic co-opted, weaponised, and punished the athletes it once called champions
On March 9, five players from Iran’s women’s national football team walked out of their hotel on the Gold Coast. Australian Federal Police officers were already inside the Royal Pines Resort. They had arranged private moments with each woman, away from the minders who had travelled with the squad.
Those minders were officials sent by the Revolutionary Guard to watch the players and control who they spoke to. The police made sure the conversations happened without them present.
Five players accepted asylum offers that evening. Two more followed the next day at Sydney Airport while the rest of the squad changed planes. One player said yes at first, then changed her mind and flew back with the team.
The squad had arrived for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. In their opening match against South Korea, they stood silent when the Iranian anthem played.
State television in Tehran reacted the same day, calling the team “wartime traitors.”
Under the 2013 Islamic Penal Code, that label can bring the death penalty.
But sport and religion have a long and complex history in Iran, with athletes often paying the price for transgression.
The deal the state offered
After the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic Republic did not abolish sport so much as take possession of it.
