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At least six members of the Iranian women’s soccer team decided to stay in Australia and seek asylum rather than return to their homeland, where they face war and the possibility of worse if they decide to return.
Five of the six members of the team were granted asylum on Tuesday. Two others also applied for asylum, but one of them changed their mind. There were more than 20 members of the team who came to Australia to compete in the Women’s Asian Cup.
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Members of the Iran women’s national soccer team arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport after participating in a Group A match of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Australia in Sepang, Malaysia, on March 11, 2026. (REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain)
Tina Kordrostami, a councilor for the city of Ryde in Australia, told Pakinomist in an interview Wednesday that the reason most of the girls decided to go back was because of their families.
“So their family is the No. 1 reason the girls want to go home and the No. 1 thing they’re worried about and afraid of,” she said. “The other thing that I mentioned is that everything they have is in Iran and they are afraid of their identity and losing everything they have built for it over the last few years.
“I know for a fact that they don’t want to live there. They’re passionate athletes. They’re women who, you know, have so much to say about their identity and who they are. And because they’re in the public eye in Iran, they’re restricted even more than others. No logical person would want to stay in that country, especially if they have the opportunity to stay. And you know it was so close to them that they felt so close that they had it. yet they still chose their family over their own, live their own future.”
The team arrived in Australia before Israel and the US launched a joint offensive against Iran on 28 February. The attacks led to the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iranian players refused to sing their national anthem before an opening loss to South Korea last Monday, seen by some as an act of defiance that one Iranian commentator called “the height of disgrace”. The team did not clarify. But the players sang the anthem and saluted before their losses to Australia and the Philippines.
Members of the Iran women’s national soccer team arrive at Terminal 1 at Kuala Lumpur International Airport after participating in a Group A match of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Australia in Sepang, Malaysia, on March 11, 2026. (REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain)
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As their time in the tournament ended, the possibility of at least some of the players applying for humanitarian visas became a reality.
Kordrostami told Pakinomist she believed the Australian government could have done more.
“Here’s one thing that I think the government should have done: they, immediately after the first match, should have gone into the girls’ hotel, they should have sat down with them,” she said. “Rejecting all the security, all the staff they had there with them, with official key people in our government as well. They should have sat down with these girls and they should have laid everything out for them.
“They should have reached out to the diaspora and gotten all the contacts from the families. They should have allowed them to have a clear, open conversation with their families in that space for as long as they needed to. … Within a day, they should have put a plan in place for these girls to seek safety for their families. … I’m not happy today at all. I’m so sad. And I was just so worried about our rules. rules, we could have potentially stuck with the whole team.”
Kordrostami emphasized the importance of what the women who left the team did.
“I want more people to talk about these girls,” she said. “These girls are a window into Iran for us so that everyone can understand exactly what people are living through. The control, the coercion, the restrictions, the restrictions, this is the reality for 90 million people in that country.”
Australian officials stressed they were doing everything possible to allow the Iranian team to stay.
In this photo provided by the office of Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, the minister Tony Burke, center, poses at an undisclosed location with five Iranian female soccer players who have been granted asylum in Australia, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (Australian Department of Home Affairs via AP)
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the players’ chance of being considered for asylum came down to last-minute discussions at Sydney Airport, where the women were separated from their carers and given time to call their families.
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“Everything was about ensuring the dignity of these individuals to make a choice,” he said. “We couldn’t take the pressure out of context for these individuals, of what might have been said to them beforehand, what pressure they might have felt there was on other family members.”
