On video: Iranian soccer fans cheer in a league match in Tehran that they were allowed to enter (Reuters)
Before and in every World Cup to which the Iranian national team qualifies, there are matters that go beyond the boundaries of the field.
It's almost a tradition.
Sometimes these are sanctions against the background of the nuclear talks, sometimes boycotts by American companies that forbid the players to take pictures with their products, and always somehow politics enters into football and drives this country crazy.
In 1998, these were the events surrounding the game against the United States, in 2006, around the presence of former President Ahmed Ahmadinejad in the training camp, and in 2018, the economic sanctions of Donald Trump, then President of the United States, which eliminated the team's preparation.
And here, another World Cup, and again a mess.
In the last two months, Iran has been turbulent.
The 'Hijab protest' that broke out following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was beaten to death by the Revolutionary Guards, brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets in more than 150 cities.
Iranians demand three things: rights for women, life and freedom.
The first World Cup in the Arab world and the Middle East is just a few days away, and among the participating regional teams there is one that comes to the tournament at the heart of a real political and social storm - the Iranian team.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters in more than 150 cities.
Protest over the death of Mahsa Amini (Photo: Reuters)
Tim Meli Tim Meli ("National Team") as it is known in the country, is the strongest sports brand in the Islamic Republic, which has more than 80 million people.
Iranian society is known for its great passion for football and sports in general, so the link of the hijab protest to these two fields was immediate.
One of the first athletes to criticize the authorities in the current wave was Sardar Azmon, the star of the German team and soccer player Bayer Leverkusen.
"Nobody should go through something like this," he wrote in a story on his Instagram page, "Shame on you!".
After him, more and more athletes began to visit.
Kaba Rezaei, formerly a striker for the Belgian Charleroi and currently with the Iranian Sazi tractor, was arrested following statements against the Revolutionary Guards;
Ali Dai, until recently the world record for international goals (109) and a legend of Persian football, spoke out against the way the authorities handled the protests and his passport was confiscated;
And Ali Karimi, the "Persian Maradona" and former Bayern Munich star, had to flee with his family to the United Arab Emirates after telling his 15 million followers on various social networks what he thought of the Ayatollahs.
But these were only the initial reactions to the huge demonstrations that swept the country.
Soon things began to take on much stronger expressions.
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Another symbol of protest.
Alanaz Rakabi (photo: screenshot, Twitter)
On October 18, professional climber Alanaz Rakabi who competed in the Asian Climbing Championships in Seoul, South Korea, without a hijab.
This act went viral and resonated in all Western media, becoming a symbol of protest.
Rakabi herself tried to minimize damage afterwards and said that "it happened by mistake because the hijab didn't go well with the climbing equipment", but for public opinion, this was the first time that the protest got real expression on the "sports field".
Rakabi was detained for questioning upon her return to Iran, and was forced to remain under house arrest, according to the latest reports.
But what the 33-year-old climber did was actually break a dam for the protest, for women in Iran, and that's how more and more tributes from official Iranian athletes representing the country on the international stages began to wash over Iran.
Last week, the players of Iran's beach soccer team, which participated and won an international tournament in the United Arab Emirates, refused to sing the anthem of the Islamic Republic and after the exiles made a gesture of cutting long hair - one of the symbols of the women's protest;
A few days later, the handball team also refused to sing the national anthem in an official match;
So did the players of the basketball team, as well as the players of the yeshiva volleyball team (yes, there is such a sport), which won its eighth world championship this weekend.
But the peak of this trend came on Thursday at Azadi Stadium, the national football stadium in Tehran.
Tim Malley played a friendly match against Nicaragua, in what should be Iran's last preparation game before the World Cup, with a squad made up mostly of local and Asian league players, and with the exception of the two team players who did sing the national anthem - the rest of the players remained silent.
On the grass, Tim Mali looked a little squeaky - precisely after impressive results in the previous international break - 0:1 against Uruguay and 1:1 with Senegal, but won the game 0:1 with a goal by Mehdi Turabi from Persepolis, actually one of the two players who sang the the anthem
As with any protest that destabilizes the Islamic Republic, this time too there are those who place the responsibility for the protest on the US, Israel and the West, and it is very possible that this is also the case among some of the national team's players.
In exactly one week, Iran will open its games in a full house - "Iran against the West" - with England, Wales, and no less and nothing more than the USA team. As the protests continue in the background, all eyes will be on next Monday, the second match day of the World Cup, so Tim Mali will meet the England team, and it will be very interesting to see the team players during the anthem of the Islamic Republic. Will they continue the trend of protesting against the authorities of the Islamic Republic like their colleagues from other sports and put the issues of women's rights in Iran on the biggest stage of all? Or will there be those who sing this time too? the anthem out of fear for their lives.
Champions League runner-up last season.
Mehdi Tarmi (Photo: GettyImages, Mohammad Jamali)
What is certain is that it will be fascinating and the whole world will follow.
And if somehow, the bruised but talented Iran, together with the Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz, this season's Champions League runner-up Mahdi Taremi of Porto, Alireza Jahanbakhsh of Feyenoord and maybe also Sardar Azmon if he recovers in time from injury, will be silent in the anthem but will manage to take points from England and Wales, it is expected Become the hit of this World Cup.
And if that's not enough - on November 29, she will meet the United States for a direct battle for much more than the historic place in the round of 16 of the World Cup for her.
A direct battle against the greatest enemy, what is commonly called in Iran "the great devil", in the reenactment of the meeting between them from the 1998 World Cup, but this time, when in the background not only nuclear talks and an opposition protest, but a real protest that sweeps away the Iranian people and the athletes who represent it.
"80 million people, one goal, one heartbeat."
This sentence was claimed by Carlos Queiroz, in the last press conference before Iran went to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, when the American sanctions resulted in the fact that no worthy opponent agreed to play against Iran in the preparatory games.
This sentence became a slogan of Iran under Kiirosh.
Now, it is relevant again, but it gets a completely different charge.
This is how it turned out that the first World Cup in the Arab world, the team that arrives with the most stormy and talked about momentum, is actually Persian.
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