By refusing to sing the national anthem at FIFA World Cup, Iran national team sends a huge signal to the world.
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Iran Football Team
We all have heard the famous number, “Sound Of Silence,” sung by Simon and Garfunkel in the mid-60s. It’s a song that captures rich emotions and can still be heard on FM stations around the globe. On Monday, at the Khalifa Stadium, there was a different sound of silence. This one was eerie, coming from the Iran national team.
Usually, when the national anthem is played at an international sporting arena, it produces emotions and energy. Well, in the case of Iran, just before their match against England, the mood was different. It was sad and very much symbolic of what is playing back home in Iran, in politics as well as society at large.
That the players from Iran chose not to sing the national anthem was huge. That, too, in Qatar, which has been unable to distinguish itself as a modern state by ways of its actions. The silence from the players was scary, for, the national anthem does produce in you that unseen emotion and unfelt feelings. It evokes patriotism and how an athlete craves to be part of a national side.
With this Iran team, there have been many distressing issues. Just to jog the readers’ memory, this Iran team which lost 2-6 to England, was not shamed. They had no fear of not singing the national anthem. Can you call them anti-national? No way. The silence was a way of communicating in a giant international arena what all is going wrong back home and how the national team should not even have been allowed to play in Qatar. The supreme leader in Iran continues to be Ayatollah Ali Khameini. All others involved in governance come under him, including the president, judiciary, parliament, guardian council, and the armed forces.
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The Iran players have shown great solidarity with their sisters and mothers back home as to how they are with them in the fight against an oppressive Islamic Cleric regime
To be sure, there were protests not to allow Iran to play the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as the situation back home and the overall mood is one of victimization. Sport is supposed to neutralize all kinds of negativity, even if there be issues plaguing an athlete. Today, what is happening in Iran is crazy. Since the time the revolution took place in 1979, Iran has been a dictatorial regime where Islamic clerics have called the shots and taken the country backward by decades.
Can you believe it, this was the same Iran that hosted the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran? At that time, Iran was a modern state, minus all these restrictions. Today, there is no difference between Afghanistan, which has been Talibanised, and Iran, which is the fountainhead of oppression. For decades, society has seen men behave most obnoxiously. Sadly, the women have been pushed to a level of extreme isolation, frustration, and being treated as slaves.
Iran has rich natural resources and its oil reserve is so important to them, economically. If they have been wasting huge resources on mindless wars with neighbors Iraq, since 1979, it has now led to more churning. In the last two or three months, there is an uprising in Iran. Freedom for Iran, freedom for women, and freedom for life are the cry today. The (in)famous case of young 22-year-old Mahsa Amini dying in custody in Iran after her arrest on September 13 for breaching the prescribed dress code has gone viral on internet.
Wearing the hijab, or head scarf is mandatory. There is no way an Iranian woman can step onto the streets unless she is fully clothed. If they dare to break the dress code, the egoistic males will come down on them with brutality of a beast. What has caught the eye in repeated episodes now seen on television is women taking off their hijab and symbolically cutting their hair. This is an act of defiance from the Iranian women that they will no longer keep quiet. They want to be heard, not stifled. Their hearts bleed for respect and tears are traumatic.
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Indeed, these were the complex emotions that were captured in that one huge act by the Iranian players on Monday. They showed, by not singing the national anthem “Sorude Melliye Jomhuriye Eslamiye Iran” they were in solidarity with the women– sisters and mothers back home. Yes, this was censored by state-run Iran television. For the Western world, which is sympathetic towards Iran, the act of defiance from the Iran players is very big news. Forget the result of the match against England. To have stepped on the turf and shown a large heart is in itself a huge feat. Surely, your heart also beats for Iran?
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S Kannan
(382 Articles Published)