Most of Iranian team left Australia after declining last-minute airport asylum offers

The Iranian women’s soccer team left Australia minus seven of its members after tearful protests of their departure outside Sydney Airport and frantic final efforts inside the terminal by Australian officials, who sought to ensure the women understood they were being offered asylum.

As the team’s flight time drew nearer and they passed through security late Tuesday, each woman was taken aside to meet alone with officials who explained through interpreters that they could choose not to return to Iran.

Seven women ultimately accepted humanitarian visas allowing them to remain permanently in Australia after what Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke described as “emotional” meetings. One has since changed her mind, underscoring the tense and precarious nature of their decisions.

“In Australia, people are able to change their mind,” said Burke, who had hours earlier posted photos of the seven women granted humanitarian visas to his social media accounts, their identities clearly visible.

It was a dramatic conclusion to an episode that has gripped Australia since the Iranian team’s first game at the Asian Cup soccer tournament, when they remained silent during their national anthem. The players sang the anthem before subsequent games and haven’t publicly disclosed their views or explained their actions.

Their silence was cast as a gesture of defiance or protest by some, and an act of mourning by others.

“When those players were silent at the start of their first match in Australia, that silence was heard as a roar all around the world,” Burke said. “We responded by saying, the invitation is there. In Australia you can be safe.”

The team arrived in Australia last month, before the Iran war began Feb. 28. Iran was knocked out of the tournament over the weekend and the squad faced the prospect of returning to a country under bombardment.

The women’s fate captured international attention as Iranian Australian groups warned they could face dire consequences from Iran’s theocratic government for failing to sing the anthem, even as the players remained silent on the gesture’s meaning or their own concerns about returning.

There was further outrage in Australia yesterday after news outlets published a photo that appeared to show a women being led by the wrist by a teammate to the bus bound for the airport, another squad member’s hand at her shoulder.

U.S. President Donald Trump waded into the matter Monday, criticizing the Australian government for not offering the women asylum. It emerged the next day that discussions between Australian officials and the women had already been unfolding privately.

Meanwhile, an Iranian official rejected suggestions that the women weren’t safe to go home.

“Iran welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their security,” Iranian first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Tuesday. “No one has the right to interfere in the family affairs of the Iranian nation and play the role of a nanny who is kinder than a mother,” he added.

Iranian state TV said the country’s football federation had asked international soccer bodies to review what it called Trump’s “direct political interference in football,” warning such remarks could disrupt the 2026 World Cup. MDT/AP