更新于：2026年3月16日 / 美国东部时间上午7:14 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
马来西亚吉隆坡 — 一位体育官员周一表示，伊朗女足又一名接受澳大利亚难民签证以留在该国的成员决定返回祖国。
这使得最初七名接受庇护的队员中，仍有两人坚持最初决定。
该体育官员称，伊朗女足在澳大利亚女子亚洲杯出局后，于3月10日从悉尼飞往吉隆坡，但大部分七名因在澳大利亚寻求庇护而引发外交风波的队员已重新在吉隆坡与队友会合。
球队在离开澳大利亚时留下了六名球员和一名接受保护签证的工作人员，后有四名球员和这名工作人员陆续返回吉隆坡，最新抵达的是周一飞抵的。关于这些队员改变主意的原因尚未透露，但澳大利亚的伊朗侨民指责德黑兰方面施加压力。有人怀疑球队在等待另外两名队员从澳大利亚被说服归队，因此推迟了10小时飞行。
（图片说明：2026年3月11日，马来西亚雪邦，伊朗女足在参加在澳大利亚举办的亚洲杯后抵达吉隆坡国际机场。图为Mohd RASFAN / AFP via Getty Images）
亚洲足球联合会（AFC）在吉隆坡为球队提供支持。该联合会总经理温莎·保罗·约翰表示，球队正在马来西亚最大城市等待飞往战火纷飞的祖国的航班。
“可能是今天、明天或下周，”温莎在吉隆坡对记者说，“我们只是在等待他们告知计划。”
他称，尽管有媒体报道伊朗国内家人可能因球队在开幕战未唱国歌而面临报复，但联合会未收到球员关于回国的直接投诉。
“我们无法核实任何情况。我们询问过，她们说‘没事’，”他说，“她们精神状态很好……看起来并不害怕。”
伊朗当局将女足拒绝庇护的决定视为对澳大利亚和特朗普总统的胜利。
伊朗队于2月28日中东战争爆发前夕抵达澳大利亚参赛，行程安排因此复杂化。
澳大利亚移民部助理部长马特·西斯尔思韦特称，女足在澳大利亚的处境是“非常复杂的情况”。
“这些是非常个人化的决定，政府尊重选择回国者的决定。我们将继续为留下的两人提供支持，”西斯尔思韦特说。
留在澳大利亚的球员已被转移至未公开的安全地点，正接受政府和伊朗侨民社区的援助。
悉尼麦考瑞大学政治学家凯莉·摩尔-吉尔伯特曾于2018-2020年因间谍指控在伊朗监狱服刑两年多，她表示“赢得宣传战”已盖过球员福利问题。
“我认为，正是高风险让伊朗政权警觉并采取回应，”摩尔-吉尔伯特说，“如果这些女性当初低调寻求庇护而非高调曝光，或许伊朗伊斯兰共和国官员会像对待其他叛逃运动员那样‘默许’，而不是强行干预。”
伊朗塔斯尼姆通讯社称，离澳球员“回到了家人和祖国的温暖怀抱”，将其归国描述为所谓“美澳政治行动”的失败。
球员拒唱国歌引发对其在伊朗安全的担忧，澳大利亚伊朗侨民和美国总统均呼吁政府介入。
澳大利亚伊朗侨民中部分人士指责最初接受庇护后于周六离澳的工作人员通过短信向队友传播伊朗政府宣传。
西斯尔思韦特否认存在工作人员说服他人离队的证据，称留在澳大利亚的人均为“真正的难民申请者”。
尽管澳大利亚政府去年驱逐了伊朗大使，但首都堪培拉的伊朗驻澳使馆仍有人员留守。
澳大利亚总理阿尔巴尼斯于去年8月在指控伊朗革命卫队2024年纵火袭击悉尼犹太食品公司和墨尔本犹太会堂后与伊朗断交。
维多利亚州澳伊朗协会副会长坎比兹·拉兹马拉表示，接受庇护的女足队员承受着德黑兰政权的巨大压力。
“她们在信息匮乏的情况下临时做决定，不得不应对局势，”拉兹马拉说，“我对她们决定回国并不震惊，但也理解其中的苦衷。”
伊朗外交部在声明中称，离队球员“回归祖国”是“挫败美澳阴谋的胜利”。
5th member of Iran women’s soccer team changes mind on accepting asylum in Australia
Updated on: March 16, 2026 / 7:14 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia — Another member of the Iran women’s soccer team who accepted a refugee visa to stay in Australia has decided to return to her homeland, a sport official said Monday.
That leaves two of an initial seven squad members who’d accepted asylum as sticking with their original decisions.
The Iranian women’s soccer team had yet to reveal plans to leave Malaysia when most of the seven squad members who created a diplomatic furor by accepting asylum in Australia a week ago had rejoined their teammates in Kuala Lumpur, the sport official said.
The squad flew from Sydney on March 10 after being knocked out of the Women’s Asian Cup in Australia, leaving behind six players and a support staff member who had accepted protection visas.
Four players and the staffer have since rejoined the team in Kuala Lumpur, the latest flying in on Monday. No reasons have been given for the changes of heart, but the Iranian diaspora in Australia blames pressure from Tehran. Some suspect the team is holding a 10-hour flight from Sydney until the two outstanding players are persuaded to rejoin them from Australia.
Members of Iran’s women’s soccer team talk as they arrive at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after taking part in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 tournament in Australia, in Sepang on March 11, 2026. Mohd RASFAN / AFP via Getty Images
The team is being supported in Kuala Lumpur by the Asian Football Confederation. The confederation’s general manager, Windsor Paul John, said the team was waiting in Malaysia’s largest city to make flight connections to their war-torn homeland.
“It could be today, tomorrow or next week,” Windsor told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. “We are just waiting for them to tell us their plans.”
Windsor said his confederation hadn’t received any direct complaints from players about returning home, despite media reports their families in Iran could face retaliation for the team failing to sing their national anthem before the opening match.
“We couldn’t verify anything. We asked them and they said, ‘No, it’s OK,’” he said. “They are actually in high spirits. … They didn’t look afraid.”
Iranian authorities have welcomed the women’s decisions to reject asylum as a victory against Australia and President Trump.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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 the American president.
Some members of the Iranian diaspora in Australia have accused the support staffer who initially accepted aylum, then left Australia on Saturday of spreading Iranian government propaganda to her teammates via text messages.
Thistlethwaite said there was no evidence to support the theory that the staffer had persuaded others to leave. All those who had remained in Australia after the team had left were “genuine asylum seekers,” he said.
The Iranian embassy in the national capital Canberra remains staffed, despite the Australian government expelling the ambassador last year.
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.”