When the Iranian national team faced the English squad in the first round of the 2022 World Cup, the most significant event was not the result, a comfortable 6-2 victory for the Three Lions. Instead, it was the silence of the Iranian team during the national anthem. The uncomfortable silence was a form of solidarity for the protest movement that swept Iran following the suspicious death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody on September 16, 2022. The actions of the Iranian team were not welcome in Iran. A Tehran official said no one should insult the anthem and the flag. An Iranian MP argued that the team should be replaced by youths who are faithful to the revolution and can sing the national anthem. Yet, the same national football team drew opprobrium from protesters after they were seen bowing before President Ebrahim Raisi before flying out to Qatar. The same protesters cheered as the Iranian football team lost against England. Something seemingly innocuous as football has also come to symbolise the deep chasms within Iranian society. This, however, is a rift pre-dating the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which replaced the Shah’s paranoid and morally bankrupt regime with a...
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