Protests abound inside Iran because the nationwide workforce performs on the World Cup.
The final time Iran confronted the US on the World Cup, again in 1998, the streets of Tehran erupted in celebration after Iran received. This time round, emotions are far more difficult. Iranians are coming into a 3rd month of protests after 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini died in police custody in September. Since then, foreign-based rights teams say lots of have been killed by safety forces and 1000's arrested. On this episode, we have a look at the function athletes are enjoying in Iran’s protests.
On this episode:
- Reza H. Akbari (@rezahakbari), PhD candidate and program supervisor at Institute for Struggle and Peace Reporting
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Full episode transcript:
This transcript was created utilizing AI. It’s been reviewed by people, but it surely would possibly comprise errors. Please tell us you probably have any corrections or questions, our electronic mail is TheTake@aljazeera.internet.
[SOUND OF CELEBRATION]
Halla Mohieddeen: That is what the streets of Tehran seemed like again in the summertime of 1998, after Iran beat the US in a World Cup match many Iranians bear in mind to today.
Halla Mohieddeen: The 2 nations are about to face off once more, however this time, the surroundings in Iran couldn’t be extra totally different.
[SOUNDS FROM IRAN PROTESTS]
Newsreel: Let’s flip to Iran now, the place anti-government protests proceed throughout the nation.
Newsreel: Their anger was sparked by the dying of this girl, Mahsa Amini. She was simply 22.
Newsreel: Safety forces are cracking down on protests now of their third month.
Halla Mohieddeen: At this time, a have a look at how sport and protest have collided in Iran. I’m Halla Mohieddeen and that is The Take.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: I’m speaking to somebody who’s following each Iran’s sports activities and its ongoing protest motion very intently.
Reza Akbari: My identify is Reza Akbari. I'm an Iranian American. I used to be born and raised in Iran and after I was 16, I moved to the US.
Halla Mohieddeen: Reza’s a PhD pupil in Washington, DC, the place he additionally works for the Institute for Struggle and Peace Reporting.
Reza Akbari: I spend most of my time observing Iran and studying in regards to the social political dynamics within the nation.
Halla Mohieddeen: And also you’re a soccer fan as nicely?
Reza Akbari: Sure, sure. I’m an enormous soccer fan and I’ve been since I used to be a young person. I believe certainly one of my first reminiscences was truly the 1998 World Cup. I used to be round 14, and simply sufficiently old for my mother to let me truly exit within the streets and absorb among the celebrations that occurred after Iran beat the US.
Halla Mohieddeen: Quick ahead, you recognize, goodness is aware of what number of years. Iran has certified for the World Cup once more, and the nation does appear to be at fairly a pivotal second, albeit a really totally different one.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Iran has had sustained protests since mid-September Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian girl died in police custody. Have you ever seen photographs like this out of Iran in your lifetime?
Reza Akbari: Protests will not be essentially unprecedented in Iran. It has a protracted historical past of public discontent and revolutions. This time round, I believe what's considerably shocking is the extent of resilience of the protestors. We're into the third month and regardless of suppression and protestors being focused, attacked, and killed by quite a lot of safety forces, they proceed to point out up on the street.
Halla Mohieddeen: Effectively, towards the backdrop of those protests, there was quite a lot of controversy round whether or not a workforce representing Iran needs to be on the World Cup or not. Are you able to break down what the arguments on both aspect appear like?
Reza Akbari: Sure actually. Many people in Iran are questioning if this workforce is supporting the individuals, supporting the protestors, or is it supporting the regime? Many outspoken critics consider that the gamers have not likely used their platform to precise their help for what’s taking place on the streets. The flip aspect of this argument is that the workforce needs to be handled as one thing a lot larger than regardless of the ruling equipment within the nation is, or whoever they might be.
Halla Mohieddeen: Take for instance the 1978 World Cup, simply months earlier than a revolution would oust the reigning monarch, Reza Pahlavi. It was Iran’s first time making the event. And Iranians nonetheless have fun that workforce, regardless of the contentious political scenario.
Halla Mohieddeen: However there’s one second that quite a lot of the workforce’s critics have pointed to. Earlier than they flew off to Qatar, the gamers went to satisfy with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Reza Akbari: That induced quite a lot of anger, amongst people arguing that the regime is killing the protesters. They’re utilizing extreme violence. And in the course of this, you meet with the president of the nation and, because the Iranian custom goes, you truly arise and barely bow ahead when your identify is known as, which many interpreted as, as kowtowing primarily to an authoritarian chief.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Reza says quite a lot of these critics nonetheless perceive the stress the workforce was below.
Reza Akbari: If you get an official invitation from the workplace of the president, it’s very tough for you to not present up.
Halla Mohieddeen: Can’t actually say no.
Reza Akbari: Sure. However on the identical time, I believe they consider that that venue ought to have at the least been used as a strategy to categorical discontent. Do you really want to face up and bow?
Halla Mohieddeen: However some gamers have been extra specific. That features Sardar Azmoun, Iran’s well-known striker, who posted his help on Instagram simply days after protests started.
Reza Akbari: What he mentioned was that the last word punishment for him could possibly be to be kicked out of the nationwide workforce, however that’s a small worth to pay for even a single strand of Iranian girls’s hair.
Halla Mohieddeen: Different gamers have used social media to share their discontent too, altering their profile footage to black squares, or commemorating protesters who've been killed.
Reza Akbari: I believe one of the crucial hanging examples of really utilizing the World Cup was Ehsan Hajsafi.
Halla Mohieddeen: Hajsafi is the captain of Iran’s workforce. And he made a remark throughout a press convention on the eve of their match with England.
Reza Akbari: He began his assertion with…
Ehsan Hajsafi: Be nom-e khoda-ye rangeen kaman.
Reza Akbari: Within the identify of the God of the rainbow.
Halla Mohieddeen: He was referencing Kian Pirfalak, a nine-year-old boy killed within the Iranian metropolis of Izeh earlier this month. Nearly instantly after his dying, a video he recorded for a science truthful went viral on Persian language social media.
[VIDEO PLAYING]
Reza Akbari: He was demonstrating a science venture and he had constructed a ship out of popsicle sticks or one thing like that. And he was attempting to check out the boat in a bathtub of water and earlier than he began he mentioned within the identify of the God of the Rainbow.
[VIDEO PLAYING]
Reza Akbari: He has change into a logo for lots of harmless protestors which might be being killed.
Halla Mohieddeen: Later within the press convention, Hajsafi instantly addressed the protests again residence.
Ehsan Hajsafi (translated): We have now to simply accept that the scenario in our nation isn't good and that our persons are not glad, they're discontent. We're right here but it surely doesn't imply we shouldn't be their voice or that we must always not respect them.
Halla Mohieddeen: We’re speaking on Monday, November 21, and Iran has simply wrapped up its match towards England. And sure, there have been just a few targets, we might speak in regards to the sport, however one of many moments that basically made an impression, for me at the least, occurred earlier than a ball was kicked. And that was how the Iranian gamers reacted when their nationwide anthem was performed. Are you able to simply describe what occurred?
Reza Akbari: Each single Iranian participant merely refused to sing together with the nationwide anthem, with a view to present their help with the protestors and their dissatisfaction with what the regime has executed to this point.
Halla Mohieddeen: What was your response if you noticed that? As a result of my response was that’s an enormously courageous factor to do.
Reza Akbari: I actually learn it the identical method. And to be sincere, I teared up slightly bit as a result of I additionally was placing myself within the participant’s footwear.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Reza Akbari: They're below super quantity of stress. Politics apart, I believe for any workforce, any participant, simply to have the ability to get to that stage, and on prime of all of that, you’re being put below stress to point out some type of a political gesture, I believe exhibits an incredible quantity of bravery to do one thing that I believe can be very tough for lots of us.
Halla Mohieddeen: Do you assume they face any type of repercussions once they finally return to Iran?
Reza Akbari: I believe it’s very potential. There are conservative people within the nation, parliamentary members, conservative pundits who've already expressed how disgraceful it's for you to not sing alongside to the nationwide anthem. However the actuality of the matter is that we simply actually have to attend and see.
Halla Mohieddeen: How has that been obtained by Iranians, seeing their workforce staying silent through the nationwide anthem?
Reza Akbari: There’s a sure section of the inhabitants that may by no means be happy. I believe you primarily are executed with the regime. You’re executed with the workforce. It doesn’t matter what they do, no gesture goes to have the ability to make up for the atrocities which have taken place through the previous couple of months. The section of the inhabitants that was viewing the workforce as a nationwide workforce, slightly than a workforce that belongs to the federal government, could be very content material. It was highly effective, and the gamers used the stage that they got very correctly. You even have a section of the inhabitants that was kind of on the fence. They love the sport, they love the workforce, and, a few of these people, have taken the gesture in a optimistic method and naturally, they’re hoping for extra.
Halla Mohieddeen: Reza advised me this on Monday. By Friday, when Iran went up towards Wales, issues already seemed totally different. This time, the workforce mouthed alongside to the anthem, amid jeers and booing from the stands. The day earlier than, the federal government arrested well-liked Iranian Kurdish soccer participant Voria Ghafouri, who had performed internationally for Iran prior to now. Ghafouri has been a vocal supporter of the protests. He’s accused of getting tarnished the repute of the nationwide workforce and spreading propaganda towards Iran.
Halla Mohieddeen: It's fairly refined, these types of protest and simply to maneuver on from soccer, trigger it’s not simply the footballers, are you able to simply speak us by way of among the different situations of protest from different athletes in different sports activities?
Reza Akbari: Elnaz Rekabi might be one of the crucial distinguished examples of this.
Halla Mohieddeen: She’s an Iranian rock climber. And in October, she competed in an Asian championship, noticeably with no scarf.
Newsreel: There are rising issues about Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi who competed with no hijab at a contest in South Korea in defiance of Iran’s strict guidelines.
Reza Akbari: She, after all, afterward mentioned that, oh, given the depth of the second I truly forgot and went on with out my scarf. However I believe so far as the inhabitants is anxious, nearly all of individuals consider that this was an indication of protest.
[AIRPORT CELEBRATIONS]
Halla Mohieddeen: Iranians confirmed up on the airport on the daybreak as Rekabi returned from her competitors to offer her a hero’s welcome. And since her protest, different girls athletes have competed overseas with out carrying a scarf.
Reza Akbari: And in the case of not singing the nationwide anthem, Iran’s nationwide soccer workforce was not the primary workforce to take action.
[IRAN NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Iran’s basketball workforce, volleyball workforce, water polo workforce, and seashore soccer workforce did the identical.
Reza Akbari: All of them refused to sing the nationwide anthem when the music was being performed.
Halla Mohieddeen: There’s one other second that’s obtained quite a lot of consideration, this one from Saeed Piramoon, a seashore soccer participant.
Reza Akbari: He scored a really spectacular objective.
[PIRAMOON GOAL AND CHEERING]
Reza Akbari: And, as an alternative of celebrating, what he did is pretended to primarily put his hair in a bun and use his fingers as scissors to chop that. And that’s in solidarity symbolising what numerous girls have executed in Iran as an indication of protest.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: Once they do these gestures, the place do you assume they’re aimed? Are these gestures directed in the direction of the individuals in Iran or simply to point out this on a wider worldwide stage?
Reza Akbari: Effectively I believe it is dependent upon the stage. If you’re coping with the World Cup, your viewers by viewers by nature is world. However when you're enjoying for a small futsal membership contained in the nation, that gesture, primarily, I consider, is supposed for the native viewers and the native protestors.
Halla Mohieddeen: Take, for instance, when the native Tehran soccer membership Esteghlal received the nation’s tremendous cup earlier this month. The gamers didn’t have fun.
Reza Akbari: It was truly an eerie scene to observe. You have got a soccer membership who has received the championship. The cup is being held up, however all gamers are standing like statues and will not be transferring, and nobody is cheering. They’re primarily displaying their discontent to the safety forces and the brutal suppressive insurance policies that the federal government has carried out to this point.
Halla Mohieddeen: After the break, a glance again at 1998, and probably the most political match in World Cup historical past.
Halla Mohieddeen: We talked about this earlier, Reza, however you had been in Iran the final time that they performed the US within the World Cup, and that was again in 1998. Are you able to simply inform me in regards to the match? What precisely do you bear in mind?
Reza Akbari: Oh my god. That was actually a special time. You had a rustic that was experiencing the reform motion. There was quite a lot of pleasure already embedded throughout the society. Probably the most controversial matches truly of that interval was the sport between Iran and the US, and the Iranian workforce truly managed to win that sport 2-1. Estili’s header is one thing that many soccer followers will bear in mind. I keep in mind that as nicely. I used to be sitting in the lounge with my mother and father and my very younger brother on the time, and all the neighbourhood exploded.
Halla Mohieddeen: And like Reza talked about earlier, there have been large road celebrations after the match.
[1998 CELEBRATIONS IN THE STREET]
Reza Akbari: I vividly bear in mind a gentleman celebrating on the again of a truck. He fell off and primarily the gang surfed. He by no means hit the bottom and the gang surfed again as much as the truck and his pleasure by no means disappeared. He was jubilant all through all the ordeal. These scenes had been actually uncommon again then the place you'll see public dancing and folks primarily utilizing their automotive radios or utilizing growth containers to blast music, and women and boys dancing collectively and the crowds cheering. I believe it’s closest to pure pleasure that I’ve skilled in a very long time. So it’s actually a memorable time.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Halla Mohieddeen: You probably did point out, Reza, that the reform motion was in full swing at the moment. Are you able to simply remind us what the political circumstances had been like again then inside Iran?
Reza Akbari: In 1997, you had Mohammed Khatami, who unexpectedly received the presidency of the nation. He was a reform-minded cleric and his contender Nategh-Nouri was being backed by the supreme chief, the loss for him was devastating and the victory for Khatami unbelievable and joyous. The inhabitants unequivocally demonstrated that they need change.
Halla Mohieddeen: Information stories from the time echo Reza’s nostalgia.
Newsreel: I really feel so good. Are you content he received the election? Very a lot. Very a lot.
Reza Akbari: Civil society was bustling and plenty of people within the nation had been looking forward to what Iran could possibly be sooner or later. Amid all of that, you even have the Iranian workforce qualify for the World Cup.
Halla Mohieddeen: It was the primary time Iran had certified in 20 years. And the workforce was beloved by the nation.
Reza Akbari: To today, they’re being known as the golden technology of the Iranian soccer. So to type of have these gamers, in that second in historical past, after many years of not qualifying for the World Cup, it appeared like every part was potential. And the enjoyment of that second is one thing I believe that many bear in mind and cherish.
Halla Mohieddeen: How have the members of that golden technology of Iranian soccer reacted to those protests?
Reza Akbari: They've been very vocal.
Halla Mohieddeen: That features one of many legends of the game.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Reza Akbari: Ali Daei is among the most distinguished soccer gamers in Iran. Really till very just lately, he was the report holder for probably the most worldwide targets scored on the planet. Cristiano Ronaldo truly broke his report. Many Iranians consider that Daei is among the greatest that the nation has ever supplied, not simply within the discipline, however his efficiency off the sphere as nicely. He’s very educated and constant in his strategy in the case of supporting the general public.
Halla Mohieddeen: Daei has spoken out many instances in regards to the protests, most notably after the dying of a schoolgirl in his hometown of Ardabil. Forward of the World Cup, he made one other gesture. On Instagram, he introduced that regardless of an official invitation, he wouldn't be attending the event in solidarity with protesters. There’s one other participant, simply shy of that technology, who’s change into a populist hero. Ali Karimi bought his begin for the worldwide workforce in 1998, months after Iran’s win towards the US.
Reza Akbari: His nickname is the magician due to the truth that he was simply so proficient on the sphere and his actions had been so extremely arduous to foretell.
Halla Mohieddeen: Karimi has been vocally in help of demonstrators. Simply earlier than Iran performed England, he was tweeting, letting individuals learn about a scarcity of blood in Javanrud, the place rights teams say there was a crackdown towards protesters. Individuals in Doha celebrated Karimi, chanting his identify each outdoors the stadium and inside, through the match.
Reza Akbari: The chants are primarily attempting to commemorate what he has executed. They is also perceived maybe as a strategy to present different gamers to see his instance and duplicate what he has executed.
Halla Mohieddeen: If 1998 felt like a second of alternative, how do you assume Iranians will look again at this event? What do you assume they’ll bear in mind?
Reza Akbari: I’m unsure if that many nice reminiscences will keep on with us.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Reza Akbari: We're coping with a second in time the place even the truth that the nationwide workforce could not belong to the individuals is a query. Additionally given the tragedies which might be taking place on the streets in Iran, it’s very tough to place that within the background and cheer. The context that these video games are at the moment taking place in for the Iranians, I believe will depart us with reminiscences of frustration and anger from this era, which is a really contrasting type of feeling if you speak in regards to the 1998 versus what’s taking place in Iran at this time.
Halla Mohieddeen: And that’s The Take. This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei with Chloe Ok. Li, Ruby Zaman, Amy Walters, Alexandra Locke, Ashish Malhotra, and me, Halla Mohieddeen. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. The Take’s engagement producers are Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio. We’ll be again on Wednesday.
Episode credit:
This episode was produced by Negin Owliaei with Chloe Ok. Li and our host, Halla Mohieddeen. Our manufacturing workforce contains Chloe Ok. Li, Alexandra Locke, Ashish Malhotra, Negin Owliaei, Amy Walters, and Ruby Zaman. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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