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Mahsa Amini: Iran returns passport from ex

2022-10-10T16:58:37.187Z


Iran's football star Ali Daei expressed his solidarity with the protests in the country after the death of Mahsa Amini. In the meantime, his passport was withdrawn for this – now the authorities have backed down.


Enlarge image

Ali Daei, 2019 in Tehran

Photo:

Amirhossein Kheirkhah;

/ imago images / Amirhossein Kheirkhah

Iranian authorities have temporarily confiscated the passport of former soccer player Ali Daei.

The now 53-year-old, who is a professional player in the Bundesliga with Arminia Bielefeld, Bayern Munich and Hertha BSC, was temporarily unable to leave his home country.

On Monday, however, Daei confirmed that the passport would be returned to him.

The decision to withdraw a passport was seen as a reaction by those in power to support for Iran's record international (149 appearances, 109 goals) for women's rights.

Daei had called on social networks to "solve the problems of the Iranian people instead of resorting to repression, violence and arrests".

In Iran, people have been protesting in numerous cities for almost four weeks since the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in police custody on September 16.

The woman had been arrested by the vice squad for allegedly violating the country's dress code.

Ten days ago, Hossein Maahini, another ex-national player, was arrested for similar criticism of the country's authorities.

Bundesliga professional Sardar Azmoun (Bayer Leverkusen), ex-Bayern professional Ali Karimi and others had joined the protests in his home country.

'Ashamed of you all how carelessly people are murdered.

Iranian women live long,” Azmoun (27) wrote in a post that has since been deleted.

Most recently, there had also been requests to exclude the Iranian national team from the World Cup finals in Qatar in November and December.

The Iranian women's rights organization "Open Stadiums" wrote in a letter to Fifa President Gianni Infantino: "Why should Fifa offer the Iranian state and its representatives a global stage if it not only refuses the most basic human rights and human dignity respect, but is also currently torturing and killing his own people?"

So far, the world association has not reacted to this initiative.

Iran has qualified for the finals, the tournament starts on November 20th.

Iran will first face the USA, England and Wales in Group B.

ara/sid

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2022-10-10

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