Iranian authorities on Thursday gave the national women's football team a hero's welcome after their return to the Islamic republic from Australia where some had made and then withdrawn asylum claims, amid accusations Iran had pressured their families.
Six players and one backroom staff member who travelled to Australia for the Women's Asian Cup sought asylum earlier this month after they sparked criticism from hardliners in Iran for failing to sing the national anthem before their first match.
Five of them later changed their minds and returned home along with the rest of the team, including captain Zahra Ghanbari, with their fate sparking international concern amid the war against Israel and the United States.
Activists have accused Iranian authorities of pressuring the women's families, including summoning their parents for interrogations, while Tehran has alleged that Australia sought to force the athletes to defect.
Several thousand people, many holding Iranian flags, turned out for the welcome ceremony on Thursday evening in Valiasr Square in central Tehran where other pro-government rallies have taken place in recent weeks, state TV images showed.
"My Choice. My Homeland," read a slogan on a giant billboard on the square that showed the players in their national kit and mandatory hijabs saluting the Iranian flag.
Flanked by the team members, Iranian football federation president Mehdi Taj said on the stage that "what is certain is that these athletes are loyal to the homeland, flag, leader and revolution."
Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani, one of the most high-profile women in Iranian politics, told the team members: "All Iranians were waiting for you; welcome to Iran."
As onlookers cheered the players, giant AI-generated images of the women were projected on a screen showing them pledging loyalty to the Iranian flag against a background of Iranian national landmarks.
Two squad members have remained in Australia, but the rest of the team, including the five other women who initially applied for asylum, arrived back in Iran on Wednesday after a long journey home via Malaysia, Oman and Turkey.
Activists have accused Iranian authorities of pressuring these five women into changing their minds by intelligence agents putting pressure on their families at home.
"The regime in Iran started threatening their families and basically took their families hostage. Because of that, they were forced to withdraw their asylum and go back to Iran," Shiva Amini, a former Iranian international who now lives in exile and campaigns on women's rights, wrote on social media.
But Farideh Shojaei, an Iranian football official who travelled to Australia, said that the players had been offered "houses, cars, money, promises of contracts with professional clubs, as well as humanitarian visas".
"Fortunately, the members of our team valued their national identity above all else and turned these offers down," she told Iranian media.
Ahead of their opening game the Iranian team fell silent as the national anthem played although they later sang it in subsequent matches. An Iranian state TV presenter branded the players "wartime traitors".
A central feature of the welcome ceremony in Tehran was singing the national anthem of the Islamic republic, with players and officials joining in.
