Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke with an Iranian football player (right) and team official in Sydney. AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS/AFP via Getty Images
Iran’s squad had arrived in Australia for the tournament shortly before the war in the Middle East began on Feb. 28, complicating travel arrangements.
Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite described the women’s plight in Australia as a “very complex situation.”
“These are deeply personal decisions, and the government respects the decisions of those that have chosen to return. And we continue to offer support to the two that are remaining,” Thistlethwaite said.
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Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite described the women’s plight in Australia as a “very complex situation.” Getty Images
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Iranian fans waving Pahlavi-era flags during the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 match between Iran and Australia in Gold Coast on March 5, 2026. AFP via Getty Images
Those who stayed in Australia have been moved to an undisclosed safe location and are receiving assistance from the government and the Iranian diaspora community, he said.
A ‘propaganda war’
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 said.
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“I do think in this case, had these woman quietly sought asylum without that publicity around them, it’s possible that the Islamic Republic officials might have, as they have in the cases of other Iranian sports people in the past who’ve defected … simply allowed that to happen,” she added.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said the players who left Australia were “returning to the warm embrace of their family and homeland,” describing their return as a failure of what it called an American-Australian political effort.
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The Iranian women’s soccer team is set to leave Malaysia on Monday night, ending days of uncertainty after most of the seven squad members who sparked a diplomatic furor by seeking asylum in Australia reversed their decisions and rejoined the team in Kuala Lumpur. FAZRY ISMAIL/EPA/Shutterstock
Concerns about the team’s safety in Iran heightened when the players didn’t sing the Iranian national anthem.
The Australian government was urged to help the women by Iranian groups in Australia and by Trump.
The embassy in the national capital Canberra remains staffed, despite the Australian government expelling the ambassador last year.
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Iranian women’s soccer team captain Zahra Ghanbari (C, black shirt) arrives at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia, on March 16, 2026. FAZRY ISMAIL/EPA/Shutterstock
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cut off diplomatic relations with Iran in August after announcing that intelligence officials had concluded that the Revolutionary Guard had 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 been under pressure from the Tehran regime.
“They’ve had to make decisions at the spur of the moment with very little information and they’ve had to react to the circumstance,” Razmara said. “I’m surprised that they’ve decided to go, but I’m actually not surprised because I appreciate the pressures that they’re experiencing.”
