Since the start of the protest movement, the authorities have been exercising a deadly repression which has made hundreds of victims, according to NGOs. More than fifteen thousand demonstrators have also been arrested, according to the same sources.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
even before kick off the meeting between England and Iran, Monday November 21 in Doha, all eyes were on Tim-e Melli players: Iranians were they going to display their Solidarity with the victims of the demonstrations that bloody Iran for several weeks?
The answer came shortly before the start of the match, when the eleven Iranian players present on the field refrained from singing their national anthem, before the kick -off of their first game of the World Cup.
While the hymn resounded in the stadium, the cameras briefly showed the face of a spectator in his fifties, white veil on her head, his face bathed in tears. The players, on the other hand, kept a completely impassive face, while on the bench a member of the delegation sang.
“Women, Life, Freedom” (“women, life, freedom”), could be read on a banner in the stands occupied by the Iranians who, withdrawn, quickly disappeared. During the week, their captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh had explained that the players would “collectively” sing or not to sing the national anthem in support of the victims of the demonstrations. He also explained that celebrating or not a possible goal during the World Cup would be a “personal” choice. Physically reduced, the team star, Sardar Azmoun, who denounced repression on social networks, was not part of the starting eleven.
support from Iranian sportsmen beyond the land
Since the start of the uprising – caused by the death, on September 16, of the young Mahsa Amini, 22 years old and arrested by the Police of manners in Tehran for not having respected the strict dress code imposed by the regime -, the refusal to sing the anthem of the Islamic Republic has become one of the most spectacular levers used by Iranian athletes to demonstrate their support for the movement.
On September 27, the national football team refused to sing this song before a friendly match for the World Cup disputed in Austria against Senegal (1-1). Dressed in a black parka devoid of any coat of arms and masking the logo of their federation, the players had remained silent, most of them lowered.
This symbolic gesture, sometimes coupled at the wearing of a black armband as a sign of mourning, has since been taken up by many other Iranian sportsmen during competitions abroad.
On November 6, during an international beach soccer tournament in Dubai, one of the most prestigious in the discipline, the Iranian team imitated Tim-e Melli, forcing state television to cut Retransmission live.
Apart from the field, many athletes, retired or active, have written messages of support for protesters on social networks. The former Bayern Munich player Ali Karimi, who lives abroad and whose house was confiscated by the authorities, is one of the most active on this subject. He declined the invitation of the International Football Association Federation (FIFA) and the organizers of the World Cup to go to Qatar to follow the competition, just like the legend of Iranian football Ali Daei.