Football, a battlefield to bring down the regime of the ayatollahs

Ali Daei is considered the best Iranian footballer of all time. For many years he was the player who had scored more goals with his selection, until he was surpassed by Cristiano Ronaldo. His ability to score goals made him the hero of an entire generation in the 90s, when he left to play in Germany, where he was signed by Bayern. But, for the Islamic authorities, it was too modern. And in recent months he had supported the protesters who have demanded more freedom and democracy in the country. So they’ve started chasing him. First, removing his photographs of stadiums and pavilions. Then, closing his businesses in Iran, including a restaurant and a jewelry store. And now, preventing his family from spending a few days with him in Dubai.

The footballer sentenced to death

The Iranian authorities have stepped up the crackdown on opponents following the wave of demonstrations that have rocked the country following the murder of young Mahsa Amini a few months ago. A girl of Kurdish origin who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing the veil properly and showing a lock of hair. Amini’s family claimed that she was brutally tortured from the moment she was forced into the police van and that the authorities have even controlled what her grave looks like, with a photograph of her wearing a veil. The repression has led to hundreds of deaths and iconic scenes, such as protesters burning Khomeini’s house-museum in his hometown or thousands of women burning their veils. Some Iranian athletes have taken sides, criticizing the authorities. The best-known case is that of 26-year-old Amir Nasr Azadani, who has been sentenced to death, the portal reported IranWire. Nasr Azadani, who had played three seasons in Iran’s First Division and was currently playing for Third Division clubs after a serious injury, was highly critical of the Islamist regime and has now been sentenced to death for “treason against the motherland”. The judges accused him of being part of a terrorist group. The international players’ union FIFpro has demanded that the sentence not be executed and explained that both he and his family had received threats. Another footballer, Voria Ghafouri, was also arrested for being critical of the Ayatollahs a few weeks ago.

International exporter Sosha Makani, who lives abroad, went so far as to ask FIFA to expel his country from the last World Cup to punish it for the repression of protesters. If Ali Daei has been critical of the regime, another player of his generation, Ali Karimi, has been even more so, taking to social media to ask the team’s players to “decide which side of history they want to be,” adding, “We cannot remain silent when our young people are being killed.” Karimi, who played more than 120 games for the national team during an 18-year career that also saw him defend the Bayern shirt, now lives in Dubai, which has allowed him to be critical of the government without being arrested. Now, he has been sentenced in absentia to a prison term and the Islamist guard destroyed his house and toppled a statue of him in a football field in his hometown. Karimi or Daei cannot return to Iran as they could be arrested despite being some of the most famous Iranians with millions of followers on social media. they are afraid

Football, Iran’s most popular sport, was initially frowned upon by Islamic authorities, considering it a Western sport. After overthrowing the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1978, Islamists, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, seized power by applying Islamic law to the state and cutting ties with Western governments. “The new government transformed society by politicizing everything. Wrestling was promoted as a national sport, being a traditional discipline practiced only by men. Initially, they tried to take little care of football, until they understood that it was very useful internationally. They also banned chess, because it was believed to encourage gambling, until the 1990s, when women were also allowed to start playing sports, as long as they did it with their heads covered,” she says Houchang Chehabi, professor of Iranian studies in Boston and author of a book on Iranian sports. The politicization of Iranian sport has led to the authorities pressuring its athletes not to compete against athletes from Israel, for example.

During the last World Cup, the role of the national team divided Iranians, both those living abroad and those suffering from the regime. Some celebrated the defeats of the national team, considering it a defeat of the regime. Others supported the team, as many of the players refused to sing the anthem in the first match of the tournament, against England, as a measure of protest against the repression of the authorities. In the last game they played, against the United States, different media reported that the authorities pressured the players to sing the national anthem. Some of the footballers in the World Cup, according to information from Iranian portals, would have given the money they won in the World Cup to organizations that pay lawyers for the arrested protesters. One of the most active in being critical of the regime has been Sardar Azmoun, who now plays for the German Bayer Leverkusen, who was on the verge of being left out of the World Cup, as he posted messages on social networks saying: “I cannot remain silent, and if the punishment is to be kicked out of the national team, it is a small price to pay for a single strand of Iranian woman’s hair. They should be ashamed of how easily they can murder a person. Long live Iranian women.”

The networks were filled with videos of Iranians celebrating the defeat of their national team against the United States, before being suppressed by the police. In the stadiums in Qatar where the tournament was played, the press documented how Iranian fans loyal to the regime assaulted compatriots living abroad who carried banners commemorating the name of Masha Amini.

The women who fight to enter the stadiums

Football has been a space of struggle for years in Iran. In the demonstrations of the last few months, young people who usually gather in the stands of the stadiums have taken part, following the example of the groups of football fans who were very active in the struggles in Egypt a decade ago against the regime of Mubarak. And many Iranian women have been demanding to go to stadiums for years. There is even the Open Stadiums movement to claim that women can finally enter the football stadiums of their country, Iran. “There is no written law that forbids it, but the religious leaders believe that the presence of women in sports venues is not appropriate, and the politicians do nothing,” explains Sarah, a pseudonym under which she hides a young woman who has been arrested more than once for dressing up as a man on football pitches. One of those who did was Sahar Khabazi, a 29-year-old woman fan of Esteghlal, one of the most popular teams. When he was sentenced to six months in prison, he took his own life.

In Iran, before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, women could play football. “But then it was banned. It is a case of segregation. Men can’t get in to watch women’s games, which are there, and women can’t watch men’s games. The authorities oppress women because they want them out of public opinion. They don’t want women in the stadiums because they don’t want free women. They know that if we can go there, we will demand more rights later. The problem is that since there is no law, they invent reasons to persecute you, such as the fact that you make propaganda against the regime or that you dress indecently,” adds Sarah.