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Journalism of Courage
The Iranian men’s football team covered their sports jerseys in black jackets as they sang the national anthem before their practice match against Senegal in Austria.
The seemingly innocuous gesture from Tuesday is being seen as a statement of solidarity toward the ongoing anti-veil protests in Iran, which were prompted by the death of Mehsa Amini. Amini, 22, died on September 16 after being allegedly assaulted by Iran’s morality police, for not wearing the hijab properly.
The videos of players standing solemnly with black jackets as they keep their arms around one another are being widely circulated online. The players took off their jackets after the national anthem.
https://twitter.com/RestingRageFace/status/1575191345966161920
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Commenting on the video, a Twitter user wrote, “Very brave thing for the Iranian national football team to do. And puts the regime into a bit of a bind: Iranians love football – messing with these guys ahead of the upcoming World Cup will only fuel the protests even more. #Iran #IranRevolution”. Another person wrote, “So heartwarming and brave”.
Earlier this month, Iranian football player Sardar Azmoun posted an Instagram story in support of the protests. As per translations by the Iran Wire, he wrote, “Because of the national team rules we couldn’t say anything until the World Cup training camp was over. But I couldn’t bear it anymore. At worst I’ll be dismissed from the national team. No problem. I’d sacrifice that for one hair on the heads of Iranian women. This story will not be deleted. They can do whatever they want. Shame on you for killing so easily; long live Iranian women.”
Players Alireza Biranvand and Majid Hosseini also posted similar solidarity messages on Instagram but as reported by the Iran Wire, they deleted their stories after a few hours.
