Australia granted asylum to five members of the Iranian women’s soccer team Monday, after demands from human rights organizations, soccer unions and President Donald Trump that they be given protection.
The decision came hours after Trump urged Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to give the women asylum amid the political uncertainty and military operations in Iran. The team is in Australia for the Asian Cup. The players drew the ire of Iranian hard-liners after they stood silently while the Iranian national anthem played before their first match, a tournament opener against South Korea on March 2.
“The Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. “God bless Australia!”
In a post shared on X, Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed that five of the players had been granted asylum.
“Last night I was able to tell five women from the Iranian Women’s Soccer team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe and have a home here,” Burke said.
In an earlier post about the team Monday, Trump had said that the players would “most likely be killed” if they were forced to return to Iran. He also said the United States would offer them asylum if Australia was unwilling to do so.
In recent months, Iran’s security forces have killed thousands of protesters after demonstrations in January that were fueled by the country’s faltering economy. Among those killed while protesting was 27-year-old Zahra Azadpour, who played for the women’s team.
Though the players did sing the anthem in later matches, Mohammad Reza Shahbazi, a presenter on Iranian state TV, calledthe players “traitors” and demanded that they be punished for displaying “dishonor and betrayal.”
On Monday, Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s ousted former ruler, said in a statement on Xthat the players “are facing intense pressure and ongoing threats from the Islamic Republic following their courageous act of refusing to recite the regime’s anthem, and they may face very serious consequences if they return to Iran.” Pahlavi also urged the Australian government to give the players support.
In a separate post, Pahlavi said that amid fears for their safety, five members of the team “have successfully sought refuge in Australia by leaving the team’s training camp.” The Washington Post was not immediately able to confirm this claim. Earlier Monday, CNN Sports reportedthat five members of the squad had left the team’s hotel in Australia and sought Australian police protection.
FIFPRO Asia/Oceania, the continental division of the world players’ union, on Friday demandedthat the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, “urgently engage” with the Iranian football federation and the Australian government to protect the players.
In a statement to The Post, FIFA said the safety and security of the players “are FIFA’s priority, and we therefore remain in close contact with the AFC and the relevant Australian authorities, including Football Australia, in relation to the team’s situation.”
Spokespeople for the AFC and Football Australia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for details on whether Trump’s offer to take in the soccer team represented a broader shift in U.S. policy toward Iranians.
Since Trump began his second term last year, his administration has taken a hard line on Iranian asylum seekers and refugees and has enacted a travel ban on people holding Iranian passports. As recently as January, the administration had deported Iranian migrants, including some seeking asylum, flying them back to Iran amid the wave of violence that followed anti-government demonstrations there that month.
Similar repatriation flights occurred under an agreement reached last year. The move marked a shift in U.S. policy, which had long considered Iran a “recalcitrant” country that had refused to take back its citizens.
“We are thankful the President is now interested in offering Iranians asylum. We wish it hadn’t come while he was bombing Iranians and after denying them visas, refugee status and deporting Iranians who had sought asylum in recent months,” Ryan Costello, policy director at the nonprofit National Iranian American Council, said in a statement.
It was unclear what the asylum offer might mean for Iran’s men’s soccer team, which had been due to travel to the United States for this summer’s FIFA World Cup before the administration’s new visa policy went into effect.
“I really don’t care” if Iran plays, the president said in an interview with Politicoshortly after the war started.
On Sunday in Australia, as the Iranian women’s team bus pulled away from a stadium after the players lost their final match of the tournament, video showed supporters crowding the bus and yelling at authorities to “save our girls.”
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