Gold Coast, March 3 The Iranian women's national soccer team staged a silent protest during the opening match of the Women's Asian Cup, as they refused to sing their national anthem, which was played over the speakers at Cbus Super Stadium in the Gold Coast.
Ahead of the match against South Korea, the players were lined up before their game when the Iranian national anthem began to play, none of the Iranian players or even head coach Marziyeh Jafari sang along as they were looking straight ahead and barely moving.
The silent protest came after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes.
During questioning by the media on Sunday, Iran captain Zahra Ghanbari, alongside Jafari, was asked about Khamenei's death. The question was quickly dismissed. Jafari answered in Farsi, but an AFC media representative cut off her response without any translation, according to ESPN.
"Okay, I think that's all for your question. Thank you for asking. Let's just focus on the game itself," the media representative said before the questioning continued.
However, the match went in favour of South Korea as Choe Yu-ri's first-half strike, followed by Kim Hye-ri and Ko Yoo-jin after the break, sealed the win.
Despite the defeat, coach Jafari was satisfied with the efforts of Team Melli Banovan, playing in only their second Finals, against an Asian power that has featured 14 times in the tournament and been to the FIFA Women's World Cup on four occasions.
"We knew that we would have a tough game ahead as Korea is one of the toughest teams in Asia," she said. "They played very well, so I congratulate them and I hope we can come back to the competition powerfully.
"We had a strategy for the second half, and we put pressure (on them); we transitioned from defensive to offensive (tactics). We had an individual error for the penalty, and also the set-piece (goal conceded) was one of our players’ fault. But I think the team performance was very good."