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Former Iranian wrestler Sardar Pashaei, like many, is concerned about the fate of Iranian female footballers who return to their home country after failing to stand for the national anthem and being offered asylum by Australia.
Pashei, who won the Junior World Championship in 1998, knows how protesting athletes are treated in Iran, and he especially knows how female athletes are treated there.
“If you’re a woman, you face another level of discrimination. You know, so it’s sexual harassment. It forces you to wear something that you don’t want to. And also, as a woman, you’re banned from a lot of sports,” Pashaei told PK Press Club Digital.
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Pashaei saw close friends, female athletes, face this discrimination and be pursued by the regime.
“I know Soheila Farahani, she was captain of the national volleyball team. She was sentenced to 74 lashes because a photo of her without a hijab was made public. So this is the kind of example of discrimination that they face,” he said.
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“Shaqaiq, a good friend of mine who was captain of a handball team… she was under a lot of pressure. And now I think she’s living in a country that she doesn’t want to make public for her safety. Because the Islamic regime really pursued her, even outside the country, on European soil to bring her back.”
Three of six Iranian women football players who accepted asylum in Australia return to Iran. Tina Kordrostami, a city councilor in the Australian town of Ryde, told PK Press Club Channel’s “Fox Report With Jon Scott” on Saturday that athletes were facing threats against their families.
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“I know that families have even been arrested. I know that family members have disappeared. One thing that I would really like Westerners to understand is that Iranians in the country have, in many ways, abandoned the West and are relying only on each other to survive this regime,” Kordrostami said. “Coercion is used here, intimidation tactics.”
Pashaei says he wouldn’t be surprised if the players had “forced confessions.”
“So the regime wants to say that it is loyal to its government. This was all just a so-called game of enemies. And I am sure that they will be pressured and investigated,” Pashaei said.
Pashaei remembers the time when he was competing with the difficulties of representing Iran to the Ayatollah.
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Iranian players pose for a team photo before a Women’s Asian Cup soccer match against the Philippines in Robina, Australia, March 8, 2026. (Dave Hunt/AAPImage via AP, File)
“They always send security guards with the team. They watch you. They want to maintain the presence of the regime right next to you. So you always feel that,” he said.
“I remember when we were traveling, people from the intelligence agencies would spend the night behind our gates, so we wouldn’t go out. As soon as we went to a restaurant, they went there and took away all the alcoholic drinks, you know, the pork food.”
