Monday, November 21, 2022





‘Say her name, Mahsa Amini’: Iran protests arrive at World Cup

Iran football fans use the Iran-England match to raise their voices in support of those protesting in their country.

A fan with "Zan, Zindagi, Azadi" (women, life, freedom) written on her hand protests at Khalifa International Stadium where Iran take on England [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

By Hafsa Adil
Published On 21 Nov 202221 Nov 2022

Doha, Qatar – Chants of “Say her name, Mahsa Amini,” reverberated among protesters outside Khalifa International Stadium ahead of Iran’s first match of the World Cup 2022 against England.

A few dozen men, women and children were seen on Monday wearing t-shirts saying “Zan, Zindagi, Azadi” (women, life, freedom), a famous chant from the protests in Iran.

Protests have been taking place across Iran since mid-September after the death in custody of Amini, a 22-year-old woman from Iran’s Kurdistan province. Amini was arrested by the country’s morality police in the capital Tehran for allegedly not adhering to Iran’s dress code for women.

In the past few days, protests have been most intense in northwestern Kurdish-majority provinces, with videos continuing to come out from several cities, including Mahabad, Bukan and Piranshahr in West Azerbaijan and Javanrud in Kermanshah
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The Iran protests in Qatar [Hafsa Adil/Al Jazeera]

“My people in Iran are under a lot of pressure and are being killed by the regime, so we want to use this opportunity to raise a voice for them,” Mahmoud Izadi, one of the protest organisers, told Al Jazeera in Qatar’s capital Doha.

The protests started off with claps and chants of “Iran” but soon turned political as a charged-up crowd started waving banners with Amini’s picture on them.

Dressed all in black to register his protest, Izadi said the demonstrators want the world to pay attention to the situation in Iran and are using the World Cup as a platform because their voices are being crushed in their home country.

Once those protesters went quiet, a group of men in Iran football shirts began shouting in support of the team.

“People who are dancing and cheering for Iran have been sent here by the regime to paint a different picture,” Izadi said, adding that he was not there to support the team “because they are not supporting our people”
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Fans gather outside Khalifa International Stadium [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

The most vocal protesters seem to be those who have travelled to Qatar from places other than Iran.

Others, who seemed to be based in Iran or will travel there, were simply clapping from the sidelines and steered away from any attention.

A few families and women turned down requests for a comment, saying they wanted to stay away from trouble back home.

Hasti, an Iranian-born American here to watch Iran’s matches, said she does not think a sports tournament is necessarily the best place to register a protest but there are not many options left for the people of her country.

“We are going to use whatever platform we can get to raise the issue and this may not help the people in Iran directly but it will help show the world what’s happening there.”

Amidst the chants, a group of people held up a poster of former Iran footballer Ali Karimi who has been supporting the protests.

Karimi left the country soon after the protests broke out in Iran.

“The regime was after his life and he has been on the run since then,” said Izadi.

Abi Shams, donning a green t-shirt that says “Help free Iran,” has flown in from the US and says his choice of outfit is aimed at attracting attention.

“What we have in Iran is a dictatorship and we, the protesters, are the voice of the Iranian people,” he said.

As the crowd built up outside the stadium entrance, people started making their way through the turnstiles. The protesters, however, stayed behind for one last round of chanting and clapping and say they do not plan on stopping anytime soon.

“We have reached a point of no return and will no longer be suppressed by the regime,” said Izadi, before joining a chant of “zan, zindagi, azadi”.

Barred from stadiums at home, Iran women travel to World Cup



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Iranian soccer fans hold up signs reading Woman Life Freedom and Freedom For Iran, prior to the World Cup group B soccer match between England and Iran at the Khalifa International Stadium in in Doha, Qatar, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — To 27-year-old Mariam, the World Cup match ticket was a precious gift. A sports fanatic, she traveled to the World Cup in Qatar from Tehran to catch Iran’s opening game Monday against England, her first live soccer match.

Women are banned from attending men’s matches in Iran.

“I’ve never attended a football match in my life so I had to take this chance,” said Mariam, a student of international relations who like other Iranian women at the match declined to give her last name for fear of government reprisals.

Iran is competing in the World Cup as a major women’s protest movement is roiling the country. Security forces have violently cracked down on demonstrations, killing at least 419 people, according Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been monitoring the protests.

The unrest was spurred by the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police. It first focused on the state-mandated hijab, or headscarf, for women, but has since morphed into one of the most serious threats to the Islamic Republic since the chaotic years following its founding.

“A big achievement for protesters would be to have the choice to wear the hijab,” said Mariam. Her brown hair draped over her shoulders and ran long down her back. “But after that, women will go for their right to be in stadiums.”
In an effort to restrict large gatherings, Iran has closed all soccer matches to the public since the protests erupted. The reason for authorities’ fear became apparent as fans filtered into the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha on Monday. Many Iran fans wore T-shirts or waving signs printed with the mantra of the uprising — “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Others wore T-shirts bearing the names of female protesters killed by Iranian security forces in recent weeks.

In the 22nd minute of the match - a reference to her age when she died - some fans chanted Mahsa Amni’s name, but the chant quickly faded out and was replaced by “Iran.”

The World Cup in Qatar, just a short flight across the Persian Gulf from Iran, has emerged as a rallying point for Iranian political mobilization. Protesters have even called on FIFA, soccer’s governing body, to prohibit Iran from competing in the tournament over restrictions on women in soccer stadiums and the government’s crackdown.

The question of whether to root for the national team has divided Iranians as the team becomes entangled in the country’s combustible politics. Many now view support for the Iranian team as a betrayal of the young women and men who have risked their lives in the streets.

“The protest movement has overshadowed the football,” said Kamran, a linguistics professor who lives in the verdant northern province of Mazandaran. “I want Iran to lose these three games.”

Anusha, a 17-year-old whose Tehran high school has been rocked by protests, said the past few weeks of unrest had changed everything for her.

“A few months ago I would have said of course I want Iran to win against England and America,” she said. “Now, it’s strange. I really don’t care.”

Others insist the national team, which includes players who have spoken out on social media in solidarity with the protests, is representative of the country’s people and not its ruling Shiite clerics. The team’s star forward, Sardar Azmoun, has been vocal about the protests online. Two former soccer stars have even been arrested for backing the movement. Iran’s players didn’t sing along to their national anthem before the match against England.

“At the end of the day, I want the players to achieve their dreams,” said Mariam. “It’s not their fault our society is so polarized.”

The Iranian government, for its part, has tried to encourage citizens to support their team against Iran’s traditional enemies. Iran plays the United States on Nov. 29 — a contentious showdown that last occurred at the 1998 World Cup in France.

Observers note that the players are likely facing government pressure not to side with the protests. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has urged his government to prepare for potential problems. Iran International, the Saudi-financed Farsi news channel that heavily covers the Iranian opposition, reported that Qatari authorities barred its reporters from attending the World Cup under Iranian pressure.

Already, Iranian athletes have drawn enormous scrutiny. When Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi competed in South Korea without wearing her country’s mandatory headscarf, she became a lighting rod of the protest movement.

“We’re waiting for them to show us they’re supporting the people in Iran,” Azi, a 30-year-old Iranian fan living in Ottawa, Canada, said of the national team. “Some kind of sign, by any way they can.”

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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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