The captain of the Iranian women’s football squad has left Australia after withdrawing her claim of asylum.
Zahra Ghanbari became the fifth member of the football cohort to change her mind after initially taking up an offer to stay in the country following the Asian Cup.
The office of the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed on Monday that another team member had left late on Sunday night.
Ghanbari’s decision to join fellow players in Malaysia was reported by Iranian state news agency IRNA, which has seized on the about-face from all but two members of the cohort as a propaganda coup for the nation’s under-siege regime.
Australia initially granted asylum to seven members of the party, including one from the support staff, last week while they were in the country for the Asian Cup.
Burke said on Sunday, after three of the women decided to return to Iran, the players were given repeated chances to talk about their options after telling Australian officials they had made this decision.
“While the Australian government can ensure that opportunities are provided and communicated, we cannot remove the context in which the players are making these incredibly difficult decisions,” he said.
On Monday morning government minister Catherine King told ABC radio that “both Tony Burke and Australia can be really proud” to have offered the women “genuine choices”.
“They had every opportunity to know that they were safe and welcome here,” she said. “[The decision] must have been incredibly hard … they would have been facing enormous pressure.
“Ultimately, it’s their choice.”
The team left a Gold Coast hotel on Tuesday afternoon under police guard with one player appearing to be dragged by a teammate onto a bus.
There are fears for the rest of the team’s safety on their return to Iran after they were labelled “wartime traitors” on Iranian state media for refusing to sing the national anthem before their opening match.
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