Iranian women’s team silently protests at AFC Asian Cup, does not sing national anthem

March 3, 2026

Gold Coast: In their opening match of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, the Iranian women’s football team remained silent during the national anthem. This incident occurred before the match against South Korea at Cbus Super Stadium in Gold Coast.

Players silent during national anthem

When the Iranian national anthem was played before the start of the match, the players stood in their traditional line, but no one sang. Even head coach Marzieh Jafari remained silent. All the players looked straight ahead and remained virtually expressionless.

This silent protest came after news broke of the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Israeli and American attacks.

Response to media question postponed

During a media interaction on Sunday, Iran captain Zahra Ghanbari and coach Jafari were asked a question about Khamenei’s death. Jafari began to respond in Persian, but an AFC media representative interrupted her.

According to reports, the media representative said, “Okay, thank you for your question. Now we’ll just focus on the game,” and the conversation was moved on.

South Korea’s strong win

South Korea produced a strong performance to win the match. Choe Yu-ri scored in the first half, while Kim Hye-ri and Ko Yu-jin added goals in the second half to cement their lead.

Coach satisfied with team’s performance despite defeat

Despite the defeat, coach Jafari praised the team’s performance. He said that Korea is one of the strongest teams in Asia and the match was bound to be tough.

He explained that in the second half, the team changed tactics from defensive to offensive and tried to apply pressure. However, individual errors on penalties and set-pieces led to the goals.

Jaafari noted that this was only the team’s second finals tournament, while South Korea has participated in this competition 14 times and has also played in the FIFA Women’s World Cup four times. Despite this, the team’s overall performance was satisfactory.