Iran’s Lionesses stood up to Tehran – the free world answered

By Ed Tarnowski 
Real Clear Wire

Five players of the Iranian national women’s soccer team, the Lionesses, managed to break away from the larger group in Australia where they had been competing in the Women’s Asian Cup. 

Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s exiled Crown Prince, says they have joined the anti-regime resistance. Shortly after, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese grant asylum – and his offer of safe haven in the U.S. if Australia refused – to the remaining team members, the president announced that “the rest are on their way” to joining the other five. Some still plan to return to Iran amid reported threats to their families.

This comes after the team refused to sing the national anthem ahead of Monday’s match against South Korea, an act of resistance which prompted the regime to menace the team members, calling them “wartime traitors” who must be “dealt with more severely.” 

Departing their final match on a bus Sunday night, video footage captured members of the team signaling what appears to be the international hand signal for help to a crowd of protesters following the bus outside. The head of the team’s union had warned that he could not reach these players to discuss asylum.

The swift actions by both the United States and Australia represent what real leadership looks like – two allies refusing to abandon brave, freedom-loving women standing up to a regime at war with the free world and the most basic human rights. If the Lionesses had all been sent back to Iran, their lives would be in danger at the hands of the Islamic regime. And for those who feel they must return, this decision is not truly free – it is extracted by a regime that has made their families hostages.

This is a regime that is no stranger to repressive, often violent tactics targeting women and other civilians. Perhaps most infamously, the state was found responsible for the “physical violence” that killed Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman arrested for refusing to wear a hijab. Eyewitnesses recounted that she was beaten inside a police van.

Similarly, Elnaz Rekabi, a climber representing Iran at the 2022 IFSC Climbing Asian Championships in Seoul, competed without wearing her hijab. Once back in the country, she was greeted by a cheering crowd. But upon boarding her return flight to Iran, her passport and phone were reportedly seized by regime authorities and she later issued an apology, claiming her head covering fell off “inadvertently” and that she “should have” worn it. The apology is largely interpreted as being delivered under duress.

During the January anti-regime protests, there is damning documentation of crimes against humanity by the Islamic regime. Iran International, citing classified Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) documents, revealed that more than 36,500 protesters were killed in two days alone. 

Time Magazine, citing two anonymous “senior figures” in the country’s Ministry of Health, similarly estimated the death toll could “top 30,000.” A doctor speaking to The Jerusalem Post testified to the slaying of civilians in hospital beds. “In the hospitals, many patients were found dead on their treatment beds, still attached to machines, with bullet holes in their heads…” A witness described to Human Rights Watch “bodies piled on top of bodies” while identifying a fallen loved one.

The Islamic regime has demonstrated its willingness to employ barbarism to maintain its grip on power, and as it fights for its survival amid an existential military threat, it could become even more erratic.

Australia’s decision was not only morally sound, but legally defensible. Protection Visa Subclass 866 allows anyone on a valid visa in Australia with a “well-founded” fear of persecution – on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion – to apply for asylum. The Lionesses, publicly branded by the Islamic regime as “wartime traitors,” clearly meet that threshold.

These women stood bravely and in defiance of a regime that has shown the world exactly what it is. The Lionesses of Iran have done their part – America and Australia did too.

Ed Tarnowski is a Senior Young Voices Contributor and a policy and advocacy director at EdChoice, where he hosts the "State of Choice" podcast. His work has been published in Reason Magazine, RealClearPolitics, National Review, The Washington Examiner, Fox News, Education Next, and others. A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, he can be found on X @edtarnowski.

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