KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Iranian women’s soccer team is scheduled to depart Malaysia on Monday night, concluding a period of uncertainty after most of the seven team members, who had initially sought asylum in Australia, chose to rejoin their teammates in Kuala Lumpur.

The Iranian embassy arranged the team’s departure, according to Windsor John, General Secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). He informed the Associated Press that the team would be flying to Oman, though this is not their final destination. John admitted he was not fully aware of the complete travel itinerary.

When asked about the players’ safety upon their return to Iran, John assured that both the AFC and FIFA would maintain regular communication with the Iranian football federation to ensure their well-being, stating, “they are our girls as well.”

Requests for asylum, and changes of heart

The team was initially in Sydney, having been eliminated from the Women’s Asian Cup in Australia, and flew to Kuala Lumpur on March 10. At that time, six players and one support staff member had chosen to stay behind, having been granted protection visas.

Since then, four players and the staff member have returned to the team in Kuala Lumpur, with the latest arrival on Monday. The reasons for their change of heart remain undisclosed, although the Iranian community in Australia speculates that pressure from Tehran influenced their decisions.

Earlier in a press conference, Windsor John clarified that the AFC had not received any direct complaints from the players about returning home, despite media reports suggesting that their families in Iran might face repercussions for the team’s decision not to sing the national anthem before their opening match.

The silence during the anthem was variously reported as an act of resistance or a show of mourning. The team didn’t clarify, and it sang at the opening of a later match.

“We couldn’t verify anything. We asked them, and they said, ‘No, it’s ok,’” he said. “They are actually in high spirits… they didn’t look afraid.”

Two players remain in Australia

Iranian authorities have welcomed the women’s decisions to reject asylum as a victory against Australia and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Iran’s squad had arrived in Australia for the tournament shortly before the war in the Middle East began on Feb. 28, complicating travel arrangements.

Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite described the women’s plight in Australia as a “very complex situation.”

“These are deeply personal decisions, and the government respects the decisions of those that have chosen to return. And we continue to offer support to the two that are remaining,” Thistlethwaite said.

Those who stayed in Australia have been moved to an undisclosed safe location and are receiving assistance from the government and the Iranian diaspora community, he said.

A ‘propaganda war’

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a political scientist at Sydney’s Macquarie University who spent more than two years in Iranian prisons on spying charges from 2018 to 2020, said “winning the propaganda war” had overshadowed the women’s welfare.

“The high stakes made the Iranian regime sit up and pay attention and try to force their hand in response, in my view,” Moore-Gilbert said.

Here’s the latest on the Iranian women’s soccer team

“I do think in this case, had these woman quietly sought asylum without that publicity around them, it’s possible that the Islamic Republic officials might have, as they have in the cases of other Iranian sports people in the past who’ve defected … simply allowed that to happen,” she added.

Iran’s Tasnim News Agency said the players who left Australia were “returning to the warm embrace of their family and homeland,” describing their return as a failure of what it called an American-Australian political effort.

Concerns about the team’s safety in Iran heightened when the players didn’t sing the Iranian national anthem.

The Australian government was urged to help the women by Iranian groups in Australia and by Trump.

The embassy in the national capital Canberra remains staffed, despite the Australian government expelling the ambassador last year.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese cut off diplomatic relations with Iran in August after announcing that intelligence officials had concluded that the Revolutionary Guard had directed arson attacks on a Sydney kosher food company and Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue in 2024.

Australian-Iranian Society of Victoria vice president Kambiz Razmara said the women who accepted asylum had been under pressure from the Tehran regime.

“They’ve had to make decisions at the spur of the moment with very little information and they’ve had to react to the circumstance,” Razmara said. “I’m surprised that they’ve decided to go, but I’m actually not surprised because I appreciate the pressures that they’re experiencing.”