FIFA World Cup 2022: Iran football team refuses to sing national anthem

All of the starting 11 players were silent as the anthem was played at the Khalifa International Stadium. Iran’s national soccer team chose not to sing their country’s anthem before their opening World Cup match against England on Monday, in an apparent show of support for protesters back home. FIFA World Cup 2022: Iran football team refuses to sing national anthem.

All of the starting 11 players(Iran football team) were silent as the anthem was played at the Khalifa International Stadium. More than two months of nationwide protests, sparked by the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police, are among the boldest challenges posed to Iran’s clerical leaders since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s players did not sing their national anthem before their opening game of the World Cup in Qatar against England on Monday, according to media reports. Ahead of the game, captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh said the team would decide “collectively” whether or not to refuse to sing the anthem in support of anti-government protesters in Iran.

Nationwide protests have engulfed Iran since mid-September, after a 22-year old woman, Mahsa Amini was killed in police custody. Amini was held by the police on September 17 for “not wearing her hijab properly.”Her death has plunged the Islamic republic into a swirl of chaos. Initially what took off as a protest has turned into a revolt in the nation as people question such regressive rules normalised into the culture and often used to perpetuate harm to women’s rights.

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International concerns have mounted over the brutal crackdown by the State on what is being hailed as one of the biggest protests in the nation since the Islamic revolution of 1979.Reuters citing an internal news agency had reported that till November 3, over 280 protestors had been killed in the crackdown but people remain unmoved despite repeated warnings by the Iranian authorities