Sardar Azmoun is the star and goalkeeper of the Iranian national team, scoring 40 times in 62 games. The 27-year-old from Bayer Leverkusen has also been leading the way when it comes to social issues. It is only logical that it is Azmoun who breaks the silence on the Iranian national team after the death of the young woman Mahsa Amini in police custody. But with his outspoken criticism of the Iranian regime, Azmoun is risking far more than his football career: his freedom and his health.
“Ashamed of you all, how carelessly people are murdered. Iranian women live long,” Azmoun wrote over the weekend in a post on Instagram that has since been deleted. Iran’s football stars had previously been heavily criticized on social networks for not commenting on the explosive situation in their homeland. “Because of national team rules, we weren’t allowed to say anything, but I can’t stand silence anymore,” Azmoun wrote now. “The ultimate punishment would be for them to kick me off the team, which would be a small sacrifice compared to every single strand of hair on an Iranian woman.”
Criticism also from Ali Daei and Ali Karimi
Amani, 22, died eleven days ago after being arrested by the vice squad in Tehran. A strand of hair is said to have stuck out from under her headscarf, in violation of strict dress codes. In custody, she fell into a coma and died shortly thereafter under mysterious circumstances. The thousands of demonstrators who have been protesting in Tehran and other cities since the incident suspect police violence as the cause of death. They defend themselves against the systematic discrimination against women and against the Islamic system of rule in Iran in general.
Former Bundesliga professionals Ali Daei and Ali Karimi showed solidarity and posted relevant content on social media. Some current national players blacked out their Instagram profiles as a silent protest. And Azmoun went one step further by writing a week ago: “If these are Muslims, may God make me an infidel.”
Azmoun as a promoter of women volleyball players
Azmoun was born in 1995 to Turkmen parents in the Iranian province of Golestan. Before he started his career as a professional soccer player in Russia, he was already a national volleyball player and thus followed in the footsteps of his parents.
Volleyball still plays a big role for Azmoun today. “In Iran, women don’t pay much attention to sport,” Azmoun told the Kölner Stadtanzeiger in July. “But we have a lot of female talent for volleyball. So my father and I founded a club in my hometown of Gonbad-e Kavus. It’s called Serik, like my favorite horse. I pay our players a salary every month. Many of them are national players. ”
The sporting consequences
Azmoun is now continuing his campaign for women’s rights with his messages on Instagram, although the online protest is becoming more difficult. All posts on Azmoun’s Instagram account have been deleted and in Iran the leadership is throttling the internet so much that hardly any pictures of the protests can get out.
It is unclear what sporting consequences Azmoun’s protest will have. After his first posting, he was allowed to take part in the 1-0 friendly win against Uruguay in Austria. Whether he will be in the squad again today against Senegal (3:30 p.m. also in Austria) is still open – as is Azmoun’s nomination for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.
Death penalty against wrestler Navid Afkari
The mullah regime in Iran is currently brutally suppressing the street protests. The human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHR) based in Oslo speaks of 76 demonstrators killed and more than 1,200 arrests. Tehran’s judiciary chief Ali Alghassimehr announced that those arrested would be tried before special courts. They are treated like criminals.
The example of Navid Afkari shows that Iran’s rulers have no qualms about severely punishing prominent athletes. The popular wrestler was accused of killing a security guard during a demonstration in November 2018. Despite Afkari protesting his innocence and international protests, his death sentence was carried out on September 12, 2020.
Backing from Bayer Leverkusen
With his criticism, Azmoun is therefore taking a considerable risk for himself and his family, but he has the backing of his employer Bayer Leverkusen. “I had contact with Sardar”, Sports director Simon Rolfes told the Rheinische Post. “Of course we support Sardar’s personal commitment because he is committed to maintaining and strengthening democratically legitimized basic values.”
Experts believe it is very unlikely that the protest movement will bring down the regime in Iran. But this time the protest has reached an extraordinary scale, sports journalist Farid Ashrafian told the Kölner Stadtanzeiger. “Many athletes who were previously reserved are now showing their colors. The freedom movement has massive support from the sports world in Iran.”