Iran’s water polo team declines to sing the national anthem in the Asian Championship

Iran’s water polo team declined to perform the national anthem prior to their Asian Championship match against India on Tuesday.

Videos purporting to show the Iranian water polo team not singing the national anthem during a match in Thailand have surfaced on social media, which the anti-government protest movement interprets as the latest athletic display of support.

Numerous common Iranian Twitter users posted the video online. It demonstrated the men’s squad not singing during the playing of the Iranian anthem prior to their Asian Championship match versus India on Tuesday in Bangkok.

Iran defeated India in the match 19-4. Aleksandar Ciric’s Iranian team will play against South Korea on Wednesday in Pool A.

The water polo team’s actions weren’t the first time Iranian athletes demonstrated their support for the demonstrations in public.

According to 1500TASVIR, an activist Twitter account with a sizable following, national beach soccer team members refused to sing Iran’s anthem before a match against the United Arab Emirates last week in Dubai.

After beating Brazil to win the championship on Sunday, the players did not applaud or celebrate, according to the account.

Iranian women, who have been in the forefront of the protests, used the act of one Iranian player pretending to chop his hair to celebrate scoring a goal as a sign of protest.

The players’ acts, according to the Iranian Beach Football Federation, were “unwise.”

A Twitter user named Mehdi Andarziyan, criticised the government for taking too long to quell unrest, saying:

“Mr Minister of Sports, if you had slapped the beach soccer players, the water polo players would not have disrespected the anthem of the Islamic Republic!”

Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested by the morality police for disobeying Iran’s severe clothing code for women, died on September 16. Her death sparked countrywide protests. Authorities claim she passed away due to a medical ailment and that they were not negligent in her care, but her family has questioned this claim, and the demonstrators say the police beat her to death.

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