A fifth member of the Iranian women’s football team who had accepted a refugee visa in Australia has left the country, the Australian government confirmed Monday.
The player’s departure just before midnight Sunday leaves only two of the original seven squad members in Australia, according to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s office.
Iranian authorities hailed the players’ decision to leave as a symbolic victory over Australia and U.S. President Donald Trump, while members of the Iranian diaspora in Australia said pressure from Tehran played a role.
Burke said Sunday that two players and a support staff member had flown from Sydney to Malaysia on Saturday.
Iran’s team arrived in Australia last month for the Women’s Asian Cup, before the conflict in the Middle East erupted on Feb. 28.
Initially, six players and a staff member from a 26-player squad had accepted humanitarian visas to stay in Australia.
The remainder of the team departed for Kuala Lumpur on March 10.
Another player later changed her mind and left Australia.
The rest of the team has remained in Kuala Lumpur since leaving Australia.
Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite described the situation as "very complex."
"We’ve been working very, very closely with them, but obviously this is a very complex situation. These are deeply personal decisions, and the government respects the decisions of those who have chosen to return. We continue to offer support to the two who remain," Thistlethwaite told Sky News.
"They’re being given all the support of the Australian government and the diaspora community to remain here and settle in Australia," he added.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a political scientist at Sydney's Macquarie University who spent more than two years in Iranian prisons on spying charges from 2018 to 2020, said "winning the propaganda war" had overshadowed the women’s welfare.
"The high stakes made the Iranian regime sit up and pay attention and try to force their hand in response, in my view," Moore-Gilbert told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
"But it wasn’t necessarily known that this story would blow up and become the international story that it did. I do think, in this case, had these women quietly sought asylum without the publicity, it’s possible that Islamic Republic officials might have, as they have in the cases of other Iranian sportspeople in the past who defected, simply allowed that to happen," she added.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said after the three left Australia on Saturday that they were "returning to the warm embrace of their family and homeland."
Concerns about the team’s safety in Iran increased when the players did not sing the Iranian national anthem before their first match.
The Australian government was urged to help the women by Iranian groups in Australia and by Trump.
The Iranian news agency described the women’s return as the "disgraceful failure of the American-Australian project and another failure for Trump."
Some members of the Iranian diaspora in Australia accused the support staffer who initially accepted asylum but later left Australia of spreading Iranian government propaganda to her teammates via text messages.
Thistlethwaite said there was no evidence to support the claim that the staffer had persuaded others to leave. All those who remained in Australia after the team departed were "genuine asylum seekers," he said.
Thistlethwaite said the women had been taken to an undisclosed "safe destination" once they decided to stay in Australia.
"They’ve been able to communicate with family and with others. I understand some did make contact with the Iranian embassy here in Australia. We can’t cut off communications for them," Thistlethwaite said.
The embassy in the national capital, Canberra, remains staffed, despite the Australian government expelling the ambassador last year.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cut off diplomatic relations with Iran in August after intelligence officials concluded that the Revolutionary Guard directed arson attacks on a Sydney kosher food company and Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue in 2024.
Australian-Iranian Society of Victoria Vice President Kambiz Razmara said the women who accepted asylum had faced pressure from Tehran.
"They had to make decisions at the spur of the moment with very little information, and they had to react to the circumstances," Razmara said. "I’m surprised they decided to go, but I’m not surprised because I appreciate the pressures they’re experiencing."
