The standoff between the United States and Australia over the fate of seven members of Iran’s women’s football team appears to have ended, with the depleted squad returning home, minus the two players who defected last week.

Critics say politics outweighed the women’s interests as the saga unfolded. Of the seven Iranian players who initially accepted asylum in Australia, five changed their minds within days and rejoined the team for undisclosed reasons.

Observers argue the outcome might have been different had the women received independent legal advice sooner and faced a less rushed process.

"We ended up with an outcome that is certainly far from ideal,” said Graham Thom, advocacy coordinator for the Refugee Council of Australia, an umbrella organization representing asylum-seekers. "Hopefully the two who remain get the protection they need, and we hope those who returned are also safe.”

Iran has declared victory in the high-profile public relations battle that has played out since Immigration Minister Tony Burke shared a photo on March 10 with five women who had accepted protection visas.

Burke said the women, who all appeared without head coverings, were happy for their names and images to be released to the media.

Refugee advocates raised concerns, questioning whether women raised under an oppressive regime could be expected to question the Australian government’s media strategy.

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.

"Had these women quietly sought asylum without that publicity around them, it’s possible that Islamic Republic officials might have, as they have in the cases of other Iranian sportspeople who have defected in the past, simply allowed that to happen,” Moore-Gilbert told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. this week.

Australia has traditionally handled asylum negotiations behind closed doors, conscious that public scrutiny can increase pressure and put refugees and their families at risk.

Concerns for the team’s welfare arose when players decided against singing the Iranian national anthem before their first match of the Women’s Asian Cup on the Gold Coast on March 2.

Iranian sports commentator Mohammad Reza Shahbazi called the women "wartime traitors” during a television broadcast, which was widely cited by protesters demanding asylum for the team.

The gesture drew global attention and was not repeated at the women’s next match, where they sang the anthem.

Shahram Akbarzadeh, professor of Middle East politics at Deakin University in Geelong, said the team may not have fully considered the consequences of "expressing a political opinion” on the Iranian regime.

"Sometimes frustration overrides fear of consequences,” Akbarzadeh said.

"Unfortunately for these players, their act of defiance turned into a symbol of resistance against the regime and became a cause for the United States and the Iranian diaspora to humiliate and embarrass the regime and gain a political score,” he added.

The stakes rose when U.S. President Donald Trump used social media to call for the team to be granted asylum and phoned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the issue.

Albanese told Trump that the first five, a group of four players and a team manager, had recently accepted offers of humanitarian visas.

Two other squad members chose to stay before the rest of the team flew from Sydney to Malaysia on March 10 after being eliminated from the competition.

"It quickly turned into a political dispute and political theater between Iran, the U.S., and Australia. The Iranians responded accordingly; they could not be seen as embarrassed by their failure,” Akbarzadeh said.

All but two women who accepted asylum rejoined the team in Kuala Lumpur before the squad flew to Oman on Monday. Iranian state media reported the five had returned to Iran by bus from Turkey and were met with a welcome ceremony.

"We are so happy to be in Iran, because Iran is our homeland,” midfielder Fatemeh Shaban told a flag-waving crowd.

The reasons why five women reversed their decisions about creating new lives in Australia have not been made public, though there were expectations the regime would threaten family members.

Shiva Amini, a former Iranian national football player now living in New York City, said she had been in contact with the two women remaining in Australia, Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh, as well as some who returned to Iran.

Amini was granted asylum in Switzerland in 2017 after Iranian authorities threatened to sanction her for playing a casual football game with men in Europe while not wearing the mandatory hijab.

"This is beyond sad that they could not stay, because even if you get back to Iran, they are going to threaten your family,” Amini told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Amini declined to elaborate on her conversations with the players out of concern for their safety and the safety of their families. She said the regime pressured at least one player, whom she declined to name, to return to Iran by threatening to harm her mother.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei denied that any of the five women who changed their minds had been pressured by Iran to return home.

"They did not seek asylum. They were forced to. They were coerced. They did not do it voluntarily,” Baghaei told ABC on Thursday. Asked if the two players who remained in Australia were being held against their will, he replied: "I guess so.”

Baghaei said Australian officials had asked the Iranian women to go to a room under the pretext of testing for performance-enhancing drugs, then instructed them to sign visa papers and pose with Burke for photos.

"This was a shameful, sham posture,” Baghaei said.

Australia has denied pressuring the women to stay or leave.

After the fifth refugee rejoined her team in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite described the situation as "very complex.”

"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 are remaining,” Thistlethwaite said.