![]() ![]() The 22-year-old was taken to a Tehran prison in which many women have been brought for protesting outside stadiums or attempting to defy bans to gain entry. Amini’s crime? Wearing her hijab too loosely. Now the Islamic republic faces its latest uprising following the death last month of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody, there can be no legitimate excuse.Īmnesty say that Iranian women face “daily harassment, arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment” because of veiling laws. The Open Stadiums group last month wrote an open letter to Infantino, accusing him of “empty words and promises.” She bristles at memories of the FIFA president visiting Tehran and pretending all is fine at a time of relative stability in the capital. Speaking for almost an hour on a secure link from Iran, and on the condition of anonymity, Sara is brutal in her assessment of the situation. State media have attempted to block the publication of such images having initially played down the scale of protests against the Islamic regime. That’s not going to the players or for grassroots, it will be going to the regime for propaganda.”Ī protest in Tehran last month. “The World Cup also means lots of money, this regime will receive millions for playing. "One thing we would really ask for the English FA is not to play against the regime team, refuse to give them a global stage because they are torturing and killing their own people. Solidarity would mean a lot to us, it would make FIFA take action. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have expelled Russia. “Poland made FIFA think about it,” she says. It is not going to happen but, Sara argues, imagine the global impact of the biggest tournament in the world’s most popular sport being rocked by a boycott in the name of human rights. When Poland’s national team said they would refuse to face Russia in the play-offs in early spring because of Vladimir Putin's assault on Ukraine, it pressured UEFA to ban the previous World Cup hosts. If players and a football association determined to come across as being socially aware are serious about their standing, she believes they should refuse to face the team of a nation in which half the population are oppressed, banned from attending games and facing violent retribution should they step outside the draconian rules of the morality police. That explains why Sara, one of the key figures behind the Open Stadiums group and speaking under a pseudonym due to safety concerns, wishes that Gareth Southgate’s team would be more like Poland. Calls that FIFA president Gianni Infantino is ignoring. It may not be deafening but there are calls for a country ruled by a regime that has oppressed women for decades to be expelled. ![]() Iran are not newbies – this will be their fifth appearance in the past seven World Cups – but this time the circumstances, during an uprising and widespread condemnation, are widely different. That England kick off against Iran, in a group also featuring Wales and the United States, adds another layer of complexity, another reason to pause and consider how intrinsically linked football’s power brokers are with some of the planet’s most inimical countries. The quadrennial dream of success will come alive once again, the nation consumed by the same old expectations.īut there must be no escaping the questions and concerns around a tournament tainted by discrimination. In six weeks time, England meet Iran in their World Cup opener at Khalifa International Stadium.
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