Sardar Azmoun and Ehsan Hajsafi will they play again one day under the jersey of the Iranian selection? Tuesday, September 27, the first equalized in the friendly match between Iran and Senegal, on a decisive pass from the second (1-1). Despite their importance in the team – Azmoun is the Iran team’s star striker, Hajsafi is its captain – the two players could miss the World Cup in a few weeks (November 20-December 18) .
Before the start of the match against Senegal, the players of the Iranian selection entered the lawn of the Mödling stadium (Austria) with a black parka. No visible shirt or flag during the national anthem. An affront to the Iranian regime led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. But also and above all, the expression of support for the uprising that is currently taking place within the Islamic Republic. “It’s unprecedented and it’s very important, because football has a very large audience in Iran”assures David Rigoulet-Roze, associate researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) and director of the book The Islamic Republic of Iran in systemic crisis (The Harmattan).
Twelve days after the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16, caught by the morality police for not having worn the veil correctly, the anger of the demonstrators continues to be bloodily repressed: according to the NGO Iran Human Rights, 76 demonstrators were reportedly killed on September 26. Sardar Azmoun was then the first Iranian international footballer to speak to pay tribute to Mahsa Amini.
“The ultimate punishment is to be expelled from the national team, which is a small price to pay for even a single lock of hair from an Iranian woman. It will never be erased from our consciousness. I’m not afraid of being ousted. Shame on you for killing the people so easily and long live the women of Iran“, wrote Azmoun on September 25 on his Instagram account, going against the instructions of the Iranian Football Federation, which had asked internationals not to take a position.
In the end, several of them have done so in recent days, but all will certainly not suffer the same fate. “Azmoun will probably be sanctioned, insofar as he presents himself as the leader of this protest dynamic“, believes David Rigoulet-Roze. The regime cannot do nothingcontinues the researcher. It is a characteristic defiance. If it was on a boat, you could say it was a mutiny.”
Football is also that:
During the anthem, the Iranian players hid their shirts and
some expressed themselves on the RS: “I’m not afraid of being ousted. Shame on you for killing the people so easily and long live the women of Iran.” Sardar Azmounpic.twitter.com/ejXzpVcsRB— Francois Saltiel (@fsaltiel) September 28, 2022
This type of challenge from athletes is not new in Iran. Ali Karimi, a former international and one of Iran’s best-known footballers, continues today to openly challenge the regime from Dubai, where he escapes Iranian authorities.
In June 2009, he and five other players from the selection played a match against South Korea with a green wristband, in support of the green movement which had challenged the re-election of conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In September 2019, Karimi had done it again by criticizing the regime after the suicide of the “blue girl”, Sahar Khodayari, who set herself on fire for having been sentenced to prison for having attended a match. of football.
The extent of the dispute is unprecedented this time, all the players of the selection having decided to oppose the regime symbolically before the match against Senegal. On social networks, Azmoun has 4.9 million subscribers. His voice carries, like that of the singers, musicians and other teachers who spoke out to denounce the repression of power. But also to support the demands of women in their quest to choose whether or not to wear the veil.
“There is an intellectual aura around filmmakers or writers who speak up. But football is a popular audience, it’s not quite the same. It has almost more consequences in terms of display“, judges the researcher. If the speaking out of the players of the selection will certainly not bend Ali Khamenei and the conservative president Ebrahim Raïsi, “it’s one more thingbelieves David Rigoulet-Roze. Which reflects the fact that this protest comes from the depths of Iranian society. It crosses all layers of society and we find sport there. Iran is going through a societal crisis.“
While waiting to know the sanctions against Sardar Azmoun, Ehsan Hajsafi and the other players of the Iranian selection, the Iranian championship will resume this weekend. With maybe more protest symbols to come. Meanwhile, Iran continues to flare up, the people to demonstrate and the regime to repress.