Well more on our top story the football of course and it is already proving highly political for many Iranian fans the drama on the pitch in the opener against England today was of secondary concern to events unfolding in their home country following two months of protests a brutal Crackdown is underway this footage shows scenes in the Kurdish majority city of javanrude appearing to show protesters fleeing what appears to be live ammunition rights groups say 13 protesters have been killed by Iranian Security Forces over the last 24 hours in Kurdish areas of West and Northwest Iran this was in the minds of many of the thousands of Iranian expats who attended today’s game some Iranian fans waved the lion flag of Iran the national symbol under the pre-revolutionary government and a symbol of resistance others dance to the prominent Bahrain protest song and chanted the woman life Freedom slogan of the protests one fan in Qatar spoke of the anguish she felt at watching events unfold in Iran I cry every single night for the life I see lost I cry for the children I’ll try for a Kia I cry for them I watch them on Tick Tock and I’m like I’m not there I can’t make it different but I can be the voice I cry for the coldest star I cry for people who are dying it’s it’s incredible it’s a regime that is killing kids how long people going to be quiet about it well since the wave of protest began following the murder of 22 year old Masa amini in the custody of tehran’s religious police leading Iranian Sports people have been amongst the most prominent critics of the regime Iranian footballer icon Ali Karimi has been outspoken in his support for the protesters on social media and has become a figurehead for the opposition Iran’s record goalskier a scorer and a legendary figure in the country announced last week he would boycott the tournament in solidarity pressure on the current men’s team in Iran many opponents of the regime criticize the players for meeting with Iran’s president Ibrahim rahisi ahead of the tournament leading many fans to question whether they should support the team well on the eve of Iran’s first game Iran’s Captain essan hafizaji made the decision to speak out about events in his home country foreign we have to accept that conditions in our country are not right our people are not happy we are here but it does not mean that we should not be their voice or we must not respect them whatever we have is for them and we must fight we must perform the best we can and to score goals and present the bereaved people of Iran with results I hope the conditions change to accept the expectations of the people foreign well before kickoff the Islamic Republic’s national anthem received a hostile reception from a number of Iran fans and a muted one from the players whistles were heard around the stadium and the BBC has seen video of fans protesting and booing during the anthem but because of FIFA broadcast restrictions we can’t show it to you well there were visible acts of protests in the stadium by some fans against the actions of the Tehran regime numerous shirts and Banners displayed the protest slogan women life and freedom as you can see another Banner read this is not Iran’s national team it is the Islamic Republic’s team and there have been security concerns amongst fans looking to protest Qatar and Iran are geopolitical allies one British Iranian woman who organized a protest in the stadium at today’s game expressed concern that the qataris could be cooperating with security forces and that agents of the regime were present in the stadium and we entered the stadium obviously we were a bit scared of the views that we heard from Qatar like Qatari official saying that they’re going to check us thoroughly so I had to cover what my shares which had women life freedom on it so I covered it with another shed all of us covered it and um we went inside and then we found other people with the same idea being there and amplifying the voice of Iranian people so we found each other and we started chanting throughout the game and at minute 22 we started chanting but but unfortunately unfortunately they have sent people from Iran to silence us there was thousands of them thousands of them throughout the match I was honestly disheartened and I was so I was almost crying because Apple voice is weren’t getting hurt and I honestly didn’t know what to do because they had the drums they had they had so much facility honestly as an Iranian it’s very easy to spot damn day whenever you start chanting they silencing us it’s clear they don’t want us to be heard yeah so and and and trying to get picking a fight with us when I was actually happy that England scored they were coming to me trying to attack trying to attack me saying like what are you are now an England fan aren’t you Rainey and aren’t into this so trying to sort of pick up fights and intimidate me how her football fans in Iran have been responding to their country’s defeat let’s speak to BBC Persians tyrannos Stone uh Tony what information do we have and it’s it’s not easy to to work out exactly what’s going inside uh going on inside Iran but what do we know at the moment well internet is severely restricted right now so it’s a little bit hard to get information but what we have seen from before the football match began until very very recently people have been cheering for England because as you said they say that this is not their national team this is Islamic Republic team some people were happy and thought that it was a nice gesture from the Iranian national team not to Sing the anthem as you know this has been a trend lately in the past couple of months a lot of athletes have refused to sing the national anthem before the games and it’s a sign of solidarity so some people took that as a nice gesture but a lot of people have said this is too little too late we have seen videos of people who were watching the the match and they cheered for England every time it scored an even afterwards some people were Distributing chocolate for uh for England when and this is I’ve never seen something like this before it’s quite unprecedented and I just saw a video of England uh National Anthem being played in a shopping mall in Iran so people are still angry at their national team and they think that they don’t represent them at this crucial times and yet of course everyone will also be thinking about vulnerabilities of sports people I mean the fact that those players didn’t sing their own Anthem does that put them at risk um well it could officials have said before um when other athletes refuse to sing against them they said that well we can replace them with those who have who will agree to sing them and they’re willing to Sing the anthem and it they said that they’re very easily replaceable they haven’t mentioned how they’re gonna find some people as skilled and experienced to replace these people they just said that they will replace them with some players and athletes who would be willing to and there are concerns about them not seeing the anthem um but still people think that because they went and paid a visit to the president of Iran just before they went to Qatar and because they were willing to play the game um they should be fine.
