In an apparent show of support for the ongoing protests back home, all 11 starting players on Iran's World Cup team stood silent while the Iranian anthem played inside the Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar
they are there to support “real Iranian people,” and not the national team. They also planned to boo their national anthem, which they said did not represent “real Iranian people.”
Other Iranian sporting teams have also expressed their support with acts of defiance, or by not signing the national anthem. These include an Iranian archer who removed her headscarf following a tournament in Tehran; Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi, who competed without a headscarf in South Korea; and the national water polo team, which chose not to sing the national anthem at the Asian Water Polo Championships last week.
The Iranian regime has executed several athletes for expressing political dissent in the past. In 2020, Iran27-year-old champion wrestler Navid Afkari after accusing the athlete of killing a security guard during anti-government protests in 2018 . The execution drew widespread condemnation, including from the United States and the European Union.
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