2025 Iran WNT
121 · 2026-06-05 · medium
"Supporting the women's revolution in Iran cannot be reduced to photos or speeches," said Marjane Satrapi in January 2025 while refusing la Légion d'honneur, France's version of British knighthood. “When you have people who are fighting for democracy, you need to support them.” Fourteen months later, in solidarity with protest-massacres back home in Tehran, the Iranian women's footsoccer team refused to sing their national anthem at the AFC Women's Asian Cup. When an Iranian state TV presenter called them traitors for it, the Western world sprung into inaction. White-knight support wasn't reduced to photos and speeches this time, there were sternly-worded Guardian editorials and Instagram posts too. "Last night," wrote Australian MP Tony Burke, "I was able to tell five women from the Iranian women’s soccer [sic] team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe and have a home here." Anybody who's seen Persepolis (2007) knows that any Iranian regime, whether it's the Shah or the clerics, tend to respond to dissident behavior abroad by torturing or killing entire families... and the Basij or Gashte Ershad (Guidance Patrol) will do those things extrajudicially if the regime is too busy that day. So it wasn't all that surprising when four of them withdrew their asylum applications – including all-time Iranian top women's goalscorer Zahra Ghanbari, who plays for Persepolis WFC – and returned home to a heroes' parade, which had nothing to do with their 0-3 tournament record or minus-9 goal differential. Nobody followed up on the others, much less their families, once the 21st Century's dumbest war got under way; Burke took the 40 thousand likes for his prop photos and moved on. There was only one person in the entire world from whom I wanted to hear about this, but Marjane Satrapi withdrew from the entire world last year after the death of her husband, and then passed away on Thursday of "sadness". She was 56. Anyway, basketball. Back in December 2023 we talked about the first Iranian women's hoop team at the 1974 Women's Asia Cup, playing with free-flowing hair, and then disappearing from international play for half a century. The head coverings required by the Islamic Republic were forbidden by FIBA – read The Woods for more about that – but when Rule 4.4.2 was repealed in 2017, Iran sent women's squads in full hijab back to the Women's Asia Cup. The 2021 team went 0-4 in Division B, but the program made a huge leap two years later. Iran went all the way to the B Final against Indonesia, and lost the chance to move up a level on a last-second defensive stop, 55-54. The top team in Division A goes straight to the next FIBA Women's World Cup, and teams No. 2 through 6 are slotted into qualifying tournaments. Iran had another chance to climb out of Division B last July in Shenzen, and won all three of their group-stage games by an average of 34 points. After beating Thailand in the semifinals by 26, they ran into a Taiwan-shaped wall in the promotion game. The next opportunity to get one step closer to the Women's World Cup comes next summer in the Philippines, and if you "care about Iranian women" you should absolutely be rooting for them to succeed. I mean, look how happy they are about basketball! This is an extremely stupid time in world history, but that's no excuse to abandon basic humanity and humanism. “What we wanted to say is, if these people scare you, look closer," Marjane Satrapi told the AP in 2007, after Persepolis won the Film Critics Grand Prix award at Cannes. "They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories."
