Australia grants asylum to 5 Iranian women’s soccer players after wartime fears

AUSTRALIA (TNND) — Five members of the Iranian women’s soccer team have been granted asylum in Australia after visiting the country for a tournament when the war with Iran began.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke shared photos on social media of the women clapping and smiling as he signed documents.

“Last night I was able to tell five women from the Iranian Women’s Soccer team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, to be safe and have a home here,” Burke wrote on X.

Police officers transported five of the women from their hotel in Gold Coast, Australia, to a safe location” after they made asylum requests. Their meeting with Burke was to finalize the processing of their humanitarian visas.

I don’t want to begin to imagine how difficult that decision is for each of the individual women, but certainly last night it was joy, it was relief,” Burke added. “People were very excited about embarking on a life in Australia.

The announcement followed days of urging by Iranian groups in Australia and by U.S. President Donald Trump for the Australian government to help the women after Iranian state media referred to the athletes as “wartime traitors” for not singing the national anthem during a tournament in Australia last week.

“For you to go there and not sing the national anthem; this is the pinnacle of dishonour and lack of patriotism. Both the people and the officials should treat these individuals as wartime traitors, not as if they just had a protest or performed a symbolic act,” Mohammad Reza Shahbazi, a security presenter on state television, said.

Trump offered on Monday for the U.S. to take the women in if Australia did not grant asylum.

“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The U.S. will take them if you won’t.”

He later added that he had spoken to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and was informed the country had already taken care of five soccer players, and the rest were on their way home.

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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.