2026年3月11日 / 美国东部时间上午6:12 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
黄金海岸，澳大利亚 — 伊朗女子足球队在悉尼机场含泪抗议离境、澳大利亚官员在候机厅内紧急劝说后，除7名获庇护的成员外，其余队员于周二晚经最终努力后登机离澳。
随着航班时间临近，周二晚间安检后，每位队员被单独带至官员处，通过翻译官解释：她们可选择不返回伊朗。
伊朗女子足球队成员抵达吉隆坡国际机场
2026年3月11日，马来西亚雪邦，伊朗女子足球队成员在参加2026年澳大利亚女足亚洲杯后抵达吉隆坡国际机场。
莫赫德·拉桑/法新社/盖蒂图片社
此前，另有7名队员已接受人道主义签证，可在澳永久居留。最终，在澳大利亚内政部长托尼·伯克描述为“充满情感”的会面后，无人再接受庇护申请，球队航班载着剩余所有成员离港。
周三，局势突然反转：伯克宣布，其中一名滞留队员最终选择回国，凸显决策的紧张与不确定性。
“在澳大利亚，人们可以改变主意。”伯克解释道，数小时前他曾在社交媒体发布7名获签队员的照片，身份信息清晰可见。
这一戏剧性结局源于伊朗队在亚洲杯首战沉默抗议国歌引发的风波。此后队员们在比赛中演唱国歌，并始终未公开回应立场。
“她们首战的沉默被全球解读为呐喊，”伯克称，“我们回应：邀请始终存在，澳大利亚能给你安全。”
球队上月抵达澳大利亚，伊朗内战2月28日爆发后，伊朗队被淘汰出局，队员面临返回战火国的前景。
伊朗籍澳大利亚团体警告，拒唱国歌可能招致伊朗神权政府的严惩，而队员们对这一行为的意义及回国风险始终三缄其口。周三，澳大利亚媒体曝光的照片引发愤怒：一名队员被队友挽着手臂押上机场大巴，另有一人扶着其肩膀。
总统特朗普周一介入此事，指责澳方未给队员庇护，并发文称：“若你们不接纳，美国将接收她们。”次日，澳官方证实与队员的私下协商早已展开。
伊朗第一副总统穆罕默德·礼萨·阿里夫周二回应：“伊朗张开双臂迎接子女，政府保障其安全。任何人无权干涉伊朗民族家事，充当‘比母亲更温柔的保姆’。”
伊朗国家电视台谴责美总统“将足球政治化”，要求国际足联介入，警告此举或干扰2026年世界杯。
澳方强调给予队员留澳机会，但一名曾接受庇护的队员最终决定回国，暴露抉择的复杂性。
“确保个体尊严是关键，”伯克称，“我们无法忽视她们面临的压力——可能的家庭威胁、赛前言论及心理负担。”
离机前，无人再选择留澳，伯克坦言官员们“疲惫不堪”，自愧未能保护队员。
“作为国家，我们能提供选择已足够。”他补充道。
周三，多家报纸头版以“勇敢的新澳人”为题刊登7名留澳队员照片，数小时后伯克紧急宣布：“经与离队队友协商，一名队员决定返回伊朗。”
“她听从队友和教练建议，联系伊朗使馆并接受接机。”伯克解释，这导致伊朗使馆掌握了所有队员的位置。
剩余6名留澳队员因安全原因被转移至新地点，政府承诺无需打居留官司，将提供医疗、住房等支持。
部分与伊朗革命卫队有关联的队员未获签证，伯克称：“庆幸他们不再滞留澳土。”
球队成员名单显示26名球员及教练、工作人员。亚足联周三确认，球队已从悉尼飞往吉隆坡，暂居当地酒店。
“亚足联将为球队提供必要支持，直至行程确认，优先保障球员安全。”该组织声明。
伊朗流亡王储礼萨·巴列维周日透露，最初5名留澳队员已安全转移，她们“宣布加入伊朗‘狮日革命’”——这一称谓暗指伊朗前政权旗帜。
6 of 7 Iranian soccer players granted asylum in Australia stay but rest of team heads home
March 11, 2026 / 6:12 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Gold Coast, Australia — The Iranian women’s soccer team left Australia minus seven of its members who were granted asylum, after tearful protests of their departure at Sydney Airport and frantic final efforts inside the terminal by Australian officials who sought to ensure the women understood they were being offered asylum.
As the team’s flight time drew nearer and they passed through security late Tuesday, each woman was taken aside to meet alone with officials who explained through interpreters that they could choose not to return to Iran.
Members of Iran’s women’s soccer team talk as they arrive on March 11, 2026 at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after taking part in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026 tournament in Australia, in Sepang. Mohd RASFAN / AFP via Getty Images
Seven other women earlier accepted humanitarian visas allowing them to remain permanently in Australia. Eventually, after what Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke described as “emotional” meetings, no more women accepted the offers of asylum and the team’s flight departed Sydney with all remaining members on board.
The tense and precarious nature of their decisions was underscored Wednesday when Burke announced one of the seven who had stayed behind would return home after all.
“In Australia, people are able to change their mind,” said Burke, who had hours earlier posted photos of the seven women granted humanitarian visas to his social media accounts, their identities clearly visible.
It was a dramatic conclusion to an episode that has gripped Australia since the Iranian team’s first game at the Asian Cup soccer tournament, when they remained silent during their national anthem. The players sang the anthem before subsequent games and haven’t publicly disclosed their views or explained their actions.
Their silence was cast as a gesture of defiance or protest by some, and an act of mourning by others.
“When those players were silent at the start of their first match in Australia, that silence was heard as a roar all around the world,” Burke said. “We responded by saying, the invitation is there. In Australia you can be safe.”
The team arrived in Australia last month, before the Iran war began Feb. 28. Iran was knocked out of the tournament over the weekend and the squad faced the prospect of returning to a country under bombardment.
The women’s fate captured international attention as Iranian Australian groups warned they could face dire consequences from Iran’s theocratic government for failing to sing the anthem, even as the players remained silent on the gesture’s meaning or their own concerns about returning. There was further outrage in Australia on Wednesday after news outlets published a photo that appeared to show a women being led by the wrist by a teammate to the bus bound for the airport, another squad member’s hand at her shoulder.
President Trump waded into the matter Monday, criticizing the Australian government for not offering the women asylum and saying in a post on his Truth Social platform, “The U.S. will take them if you won’t.”
It emerged the next day that discussions between Australian officials and the women had already been unfolding privately.
Meanwhile, an Iranian official rejected suggestions that the women weren’t safe to go home.
“Iran welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their security,” Iranian first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Tuesday. “No one has the right to interfere in the family affairs of the Iranian nation and play the role of a nanny who is kinder than a mother,” he added.
Iranian state TV said the country’s football federation had asked international soccer bodies to review what it called the U.S. president’s “direct political interference in football,” warning such remarks could disrupt the 2026 World Cup.
Australian officials have sought to assure the public that the women were given every opportunity to stay. But as one woman’s decision to return home despite accepting asylum showed, the reality wasn’t so simple.
After days of overtures from officials, Burke said, the efforts to ensure each team member had the chance to consider asylum offers came down to last-minute discussions at Sydney Airport, where the women were separated from their minders and had time to phone their families before deciding whether to leave.
“Everything was about ensuring the dignity for those individuals to make a choice,” he said. “We couldn’t take away the pressure of the context for these individuals, of what might have been said to them beforehand, what pressures they might have felt there were on other family members.”
No further members of the squad decided to remain in Australia before the flight departed, however, and Burke said “exhausted” officials feared they had failed the women.
“As a nation, what mattered was that we could provide the choice,” he said.
On Wednesday, many newspaper front pages bore a photo of the women who had accepted asylum offers under headlines like “Brave new Aussies.” But just hours later, Burke said that one of the women would return to Iran after conversations with her departed teammates.
“Unfortunately, in making that decision she was advised by her teammates and coach to contact the Iranian embassy and to get collected,” he said. “As a result of that, it meant that the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was.”
The six women planning to remain in Australia were immediately moved to a different location for security reasons, the minister said. He pledged they would not have to fight a legal battle for permanent residency and would receive health, housing and other support in Australia.
Some of the squad, who officials said had connections to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, were not offered visas.
“There were some people leaving Australia who I am glad they’re no longer in Australia,” Burke said.
It wasn’t clear exactly how many people were in the delegation, but an official squad list named 26 players, plus coaching and other staff. The Asian Football Confederation, which organized the tournament, confirmed Wednesday that the squad had traveled from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they were staying in a hotel.
“The AFC will provide all necessary support to the team during their stay until their onward travel arrangements are confirmed,” a statement said, adding that the body would “continue to prioritise the welfare and safety of the players and officials.”
The initial five players granted asylum had been staying in a safe location after fleeing their hotel, Iranian opposition figure and exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi said Sunday.
The office of Pahlavi, whose father, the Western-backed Shah, was ousted during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, said on social media that the “courageous athletes” announced that “they have joined Iran’s national Lion and Sun Revolution” — a reference to the pre-Islamic Revolution flag of Iran — and naming them in the post.