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muriel_volestrangler

(106,415 posts)
4. Three more Iran football team members change minds over asylum
Sat Mar 14, 2026, 05:18 PM
Mar 14
Three more members of the Iranian women's football delegation - who were given humanitarian visas to stay in Australia - have changed their mind and will return home.
...
It means that, of the seven who initially said they wanted to stay in Australia, only three now remain as defectors. One of the players made the same decision to return to Iran on Wednesday.

Hamoudi and Sarbali were among the original five who refused, after giving minders the slip at the team's hotel on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane, last Monday and being taken to a safe house by Australian Federal Police.

Zahra Soltan Meshkehkar, a member of the team's technical staff, was one of two more women from the group to seek asylum the next day. The other – Mohaddeseh Zolfi – changed her mind hours after being given the right to stay. She is understood to have already rejoined the team.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98gz372683o

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