Anti-Government Demonstrations in Iran: Football Players Refuse to Sing National Anthem at World Cup Event
NEW DELHI, Nov 21: With the anti-government demonstrations in Ian casting its impact on the playfield, the Iranian football players in one of the rarest such events refused to participate in the national anthem before the start of their first match in the Football World Cup in Qatar on Monday.
In an apparent support for the anti-government demonstrations in their homeland which started from the death in the police custody of a young girl held for anti-hijab movement, Iran’s players did not sing their national anthem before their first game of the World Cup against England on Monday. Ahead of the game, captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh had said the team would decide together whether or not to refuse to sing the anthem in a show of solidarity for demonstrations that have rocked the regime in Iran. The Iranian players stood impassively and grim-faced as their anthem rang out around the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
Iran has been shaken by two months of nationwide protests since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in morality police custody on September 16. Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died three days after her arrest in Tehran over an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s dress code for women, which includes the mandatory hijab headscarf.
Some Iranian athletes have chosen not to sing the national anthem or celebrate their victories in support of the protesters. Jahanbakhsh, who used to play for English club Brighton, was angered last week by a question from a British journalist about the anthem issue.
“Every single player has a different celebration and you ask about national anthem and that’s something that also has to be decided in the team, which we already talked about,” he said. “But we never made a big deal out of it, to be honest, because everybody is only thinking about football.”
The crackdown since Amini’s death has left nearly 400 people dead, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. The state’s response has led to questions over whether the team represents Iran or the regime that has ruled with an iron fist since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
In another incident related to the Football world cup, an Argentinian TV reporter, who arrived in Qatar to cover the FIFA World Cup, had a horrible experience right at the beginning as she was robbed on the first day of the tournament, but was stunned at the response of the local police to the incident.
When she reported the robbery to the cops, they not only offered her full support with an assurance that the theft would be detected soon with the help of powerful CCTV cameras deployed all over the country, she was stunned when the cops asked her to suggest the punishment to be given to the culprit.
The TV reporter was doing a live show when the robbery happened. As per the claims, several items from her handbag were stolen. The footage of the live coverage also went viral on social media. “I went to the station and that was when the cultural differences began. The policewoman said to me: ‘we have high-tech cameras everywhere and we are going to locate him.’ “What justice do you want? What sentence do you want us to give him? Do you want him to be sentenced to five years in prison? Do you want him to be deported?” she was asked.
(Manas Dasgupta)
