The Iran women's football team are on their way home after several withdrew their asylum bids. The team had travelled to Australia for the Asian Cup when the war situation developed with Israel and the US. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike.
Footage from Turkish news agency DHA showed the players, wearing Iranian national team tracksuits, walking through the arrivals area at Istanbul Airport. The players arrived in Turkey via Oman and Kuala Lumpur, having left Australia. Only two members of the team have accepted the asylum and and will remain in Australia.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that returning members of Iran’s women’s football team will be embraced by the public.
"The female footballers of the national team and the technical staff are the dear daughters of this land and water, and the people of Iran embrace them. Our daughters, despite all the malice of the enemies of this country, have not become disillusioned with themselves; they have not surrendered to the temptations and intimidation of the Iran-haters, and they will return with pride to their eternal home, Iran," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X as translated by Grok.
At the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup in Australia, members of the Iran women's national football team stood silently during their national anthem ahead of their opening match against South Korea, an act that has drawn widespread attention amid intense political turmoil and conflict affecting their home country. Although they did not sing or mouth the anthem, the Iranian squad showed solemn respect by standing as the anthem played, a moment captured against the backdrop of a 3-0 defeat
