Iran’s players didn’t sing their public hymn before their first game of the World Cup against England on Monday, in apparent support foranti-government protesters in their motherland. Ahead of the game in Qatar, captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh said the platoon would decide together whether or not to refuse to sing the hymn in a show of solidarity for demonstrations that have rocked the governance in Iran. The Iranian players stood impassively and grim- faced as their hymn chimed out around the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha.
Iran has been shaken by two months of civil demurrers since the death of 22- time-old Mahsa Amini in morality police guardianship on September 16. Amini, a 22- time-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, failed three days after her arrest in Tehran over an alleged breach of the Islamic democracy’s dress law for women, which includes the obligatory hijab headscarf.
#BREAKING: Iran national team players choose not to sing national anthem at World Cup match; some of the Iranian crowed booing their own national anthem pic.twitter.com/RYPvgHMNUi
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) November 21, 2022
Some Iranian athletes have chosen not to sing the public hymn or celebrate their palms in support of the protesters. Jahanbakhsh, who used to play for English club Brighton, was infuriated last week by a question from a British intelligencer about the hymn issue.
Every single player has a different festivity and you ask about public hymn and that is commodity that also has to be decided in the platoon, which we formerly talked about,” he said.hear to the rearmost songs, only onJioSaavn.comBut we noway made a big deal out of it, to be honest, because everybody is only allowing about football.”
The crackdown since Amini’s death has left nearly 400 people dead, according to Oslo- grounded group Iran Human Rights. The state’s response has led to questions over whether the platoon represents Iran or the governance that has ruled with an forceful fist since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
