The Iranian Women’s Team, Threatened Families, and the Silence of Malta’s Feminists
Normally, local and Western media are quick to amplify stories involving women, especially when such stories fit the preferred narrative of liberal-left feminism. Yet here is a case that genuinely concerns women’s freedom, dignity, and bodily autonomy, and it is being met with near silence. In Malta, newspapers that constantly claim to champion women’s rights have said almost nothing. The same silence extends to EU-funded organisations and local feminist groups, none of which seem to have expressed meaningful solidarity with these athletes.
One of the few newspapers to follow the story of the Iranian women’s football team in detail was the India Times. India is a BRICS member and maintains commercial relations with Iran, yet this newspaper has nevertheless shown the moral courage to tell the story.
Reportedly, only two members of the team remained in Australia to seek political refuge. The rest returned to Iran, not out of free will, but under intense and credible pressure. Former Iranian footballer Shiva Amini has alleged that the regime threatened the families of the players, effectively forcing many of them to go back.
According to Amini, the women feared that if they stayed and sought asylum, their loved ones in Iran could face torture, imprisonment, or sexual violence. This is the reality of a regime that claims moral authority while ruling through fear. And yet, in Malta, there are still those who describe themselves as leftists and feminists while openly or indirectly defending such a system.
Amini recalled that, for a few days in Australia, these players experienced what freedom felt like: they played without the hijab, beyond the immediate reach of the Islamic Republic. But that moment was short-lived. Under unbearable pressure, most were compelled to return.
This was not a free decision. It was coercion through terror.
A regime that uses women’s families as hostages to secure obedience is not merely repressive; it is morally abhorrent.
“For a couple of days we felt freedom, playing without hijab… now we have to get back to Iran.”
The Islamic Republic does not only oppress women. It terrorises their families to keep them obedient.