The death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested in Tehran for wearing a hijab, sparked protests across Iran and around the world, including, according to her own country’s men’s soccer team.
Iran’s infamous “morality police” arrested Amini, accusing her of violating the country’s strict law that requires women to completely cover their hair with a headscarf. She was reportedly beaten after her arrest and transferred to Vozara detention centre in Tehran.
The Iranian government said it had a central attack, but its circle of relatives rejects that explanation. UN experts cite reports that he died as a result of torture and ill-treatment by the government.
Protests erupted in Iranian cities, adding to Tehran, after her death, a not easy responsibility and an end to violence and discrimination against women in Iran.
Reports suggest another 76 people were killed during protests across the country. Since then, protests have spread around the world, with clashes and arrests also in London and Paris.
In what was reported as an act of solidarity, a World Cup friendly match against Senegal on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, the Iranian team wore black jackets over their team, hiding the Iranian national emblem.
A message left on Reddit warned that the move was an act of planned defiance, a narrative shared across dozens of Western media outlets.
However, for now, no comment from the team, its players or spokespeople has conclusively shown what the team’s intentions are. Some commentators were skeptical of this claim.
So to what extent can we know if what happened in the attack was directly similar to the protests in Iran and around the world?
The view that wearing those jackets was an act of defiance drawn not only from the protests, but also from other decisions around the game and feedback made through players.
The setting itself was to be played behind closed doors, although enthusiasts from both groups were later allowed into the stadium.
Reports claim that the initial resolution to play in an empty stadium is similar to the Iranian government’s considerations about spreading “national problems,” according to a report. However, the protesters demonstrated the outdoor adjustment and were searched by foreign sports journalists.
Ahead of the match, several members of Iran’s national team also expressed their perspectives on social media.
Iranian striker Sardar Azmoun wrote on Sunday, September 25, 2022 on his Instagram account: “In the worst case, I will be kicked out of the national team. No problem. I would sacrifice him for a hair on the head of Iranian women. This story will not be eliminated. They can do whatever they want. What a shame for killing so easily; Long live Iranian women.
The posts were later deleted, the screenshots were posted elsewhere on social media.
Azmoun also obscured his profile pictures on social media on Instagram and Twitter, while his compatriot, Zobeir Niknafs, posted a video on Instagram of him shaving his head in solidarity.
Some reports suggest that Azmoun apologized to his teammates for posting an Instagram post in support of the protests, another message, sent via Azmoun, on September 28, 2022, gave the impression of reiterating his views.
A translation of his message reads: “My center was broken by the likes of Mahsa Amini and Mahsa Amini who are not to blame for this. They left the global and left a pain in people’s centers that history will never forget. “
These cases strongly the idea that the Iranian team’s moves would possibly have been motivated by the country’s political upheavals, although, again, this has not been demonstrated through them.
In addition, other explanations were tested through post-match reports.
Some commentators on social media have speculated that players wore the jackets just to warm up.
The attack took place at the Motion Invest Arena, about thirteen kilometers from Vienna, Austria. Vienna’s weather history suggests a temperature of 14 to 15 degrees Celsius, according to weather tracker Wolfram Alpha. The lowest temperature that day was 9C relatively bloodless. , perhaps justifying the jackets, although none of the Senegalese players wore jackets either.
It’s not unusual for players to wear tracksuit jackets to warm up or train before a game before returning to play.
However, those jackets are also adorned with the crest of a club or a national team.
Without confirmation of the reason why he dresses in black jackets, there is a possibility that the narrative is false and evoked from the turmoil in Iran.
While the protests provide critical detail of the context and possibly still turned out to have been the team’s motivation, the hypothesis has not been verified through any tracking sources, player feedback, or data elsewhere.
The fact that the team played with a shield on their kit; whereas the Viennese climate was not exactly hot; And that dressed in a warm-up jacket is not uncommon, perhaps it will provide them with the canopy of credible denial if questioned further.
Such apologies may be offering some degree of cover for the Iranian authorities, whose history of mistreating political dissidents is well documented.
It is conceivable that the protests emboldened the Iranian team, but reports of the attack are a reminder of how broader narratives can influence the belief of events in the news.
However, claims on social media about the threat of execution for his decision are very far-fetched.
While Amnesty International suggests that the Iranian government “executed at least one user per day on average” between 1 January and 30 June 2022, in a series of what the charity calls “grossly unfair trials”, most were (apparently) for homicide and drug-related offences.
But Amini’s death inevitably has a greater mistrust of how the Iranian government treats political dissidents.
Newsweek has reached out to Iran’s Embassy in the United States for comment.
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