Iranian women footballers arrive in eastern Turkiye, on home border

Istanbul – The Iranian women’s national football squad touched down in eastern Turkiye on Wednesday, completing the final leg of a journey that began in Australia and will end at the Iranian border, the AFP news agency reported.

After landing in Istanbul on Tuesday evening aboard a flight from Oman, the players boarded a domestic service to Igdir, an eastern Turkish city that sits barely 100 kilometres northwest of the Gurbulak-Bazargan frontier crossing with Iran. Wearing Iranian national-team tracksuits, the squad left Igdir airport shortly after midday and headed straight for the border post, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene.

The group had travelled from Australia via Malaysia and Oman, having competed in the Women’s Asian Cup. While in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, one player told AFP: “I am missing my family.”

Their return comes after seven members of the delegation sought asylum in Australia last week, a move that followed Iranian media branding some players “traitors” for refusing to sing the national anthem before their opening match of the tournament. Two of the seven ultimately remained in Australia; the other five reversed their asylum bids and re-joined the squad for the trip home.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf praised the returning athletes in a post on X, calling them “children of the homeland” and saying their decision to come back “disappointed the enemies [of Iran] and did not surrender to deception and intimidation by anti-Iran elements.”

Rights groups have long alleged that Tehran pressures athletes abroad by threatening to confiscate relatives’ property if players defect or criticise the government. Iranian officials, for their part, have accused Australian authorities of pressuring the players to stay.

The squad is expected to cross into Iran later on Wednesday.