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During an appearance on Iranian television, midfielder Fatemah Shaban recounted an encounter with police who posed “a series of very strange questions” to her. Their objective seemed to be to persuade her to reconsider her decision to return to her family in their conflict-stricken homeland.
Shaban noted, “They were probing with a lot of peculiar questions, hoping I might express some doubt, like saying, ‘No, I don’t know. I am not sure about returning’.”
“They consistently repeated those types of questions,” she added.
Shaban further shared, “One officer asked, ‘Do you want to call your family? You can reach out to them right now to decide if you wish to stay or not’.”
She responded decisively, instructing the translator, “Tell him I don’t want to stay; anyone who wished to remain has already done so.”
“I didn’t even let him finish reading the rest of his questions; I just said, ‘I want to return to Iran’.”
“Right then, I got a bad feeling in my heart; I was a bit scared because I really wanted to go back to Iran—I wanted to go to my family, my homeland.”
The statements come as members of Iran’s national women’s soccer team were greeted with a welcome ceremony upon their return to the Islamic Republic after several of the players sought asylum in Australia.
Shaban said she is happy to be back in Iran, saying the nation is her homeland.
People in the crowd waved flags while some of the players held bouquets and signed what appeared to be mini-soccer balls.
Two Iranian female players, Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh, chose to remain in Australia and have been training with the Brisbane Roar club.
Others who initially sought asylum after the team was knocked out of the Women’s Asian Cup later changed their minds and said they would return to Iran.
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