Iran’s government blocked the departure of a prominent anti-regime former soccer player on Monday after his plan was halted en route to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“The regime has a fixation on celebrities and their families,” Lisa Daftari, a Middle East expert and editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital. “They are attacking them in the most severe ways to make an example of them.”
“What is extraordinary about the will of the Iranian people is that these symbolic attacks have not deterred them,” he added. “On the contrary, as the weeks go by, we see more high-profile celebrities, athletes, musicians and influencers risking their lives publicly supporting the Iranian people.”
Ali Daei, a former Iranian player who spent part of his career in Germany and recently coached teams from all over Iran, said his wife and daughter were traveling from Tehran, Iran, to Dubai when their plane made an unplanned stop on the island of Kish, in the Persian Gulf. , where the authorities questioned them. Authorities released her daughter, but the flight would not let her board again.
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Daei is one of several celebrities in the country to speak out against the government following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini and the resulting 102 days of ongoing protests calling for change. Other Iranian footballers, including Voria Ghafouri and Amir Nasr-Azadani, have spoken out against the government and face charges for opposing the regime.
Former coach of Iran’s national soccer team Ali Daei before a 2011 Asian Cup qualifying soccer match between Iran and Singapore in Tehran, Iran, January 14, 2009. Daei has expressed support for the protests against the government, saying his wife and daughter were prevented from leaving the country on Monday, December 26, 2022, after their plane made an unannounced stopover en route to Dubai.
(AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian, file)
Authorities sentenced Nasr-Azadani to death for an alleged connection to the murder of a police colonel and two volunteer militiamen, according to Iran Wire.
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Iranian fans at the World Cup were pitted against each other, with fans split between pro and anti-government factions. Fights broke out after the US-Iran match, with protesters holding up portraits of outspoken former soccer player Ali Karimi, an icon of the protest movement, and an Iranian state media journalist trying to film them.
Protesters in Iran shout in the streets.
(Credit: NCRI)
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, with ties to the Revolutionary Guards, said Daei’s wife was banned from traveling because of her support for the protests and that she had illegally tried to circumvent the ban, claiming she was ultimately planning to travel to the US. .us
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Daei insisted that his family planned to return from Dubai after a week. His own passport was confiscated after he urged the government on social media to “solve the problems of the Iranian people instead of using repression, violence and arrests.” He later said he got it back.
Protesters gather around burning rubble in the streets of Iran.
(Credit: NCRI)
The leaderless protesters, rallying under the banner of “women, life, freedom,” say they are fed up after decades of social and political repression by a clergy they see as corrupt and out of touch. Iranian authorities have blamed the unrest on foreign adversaries such as the United States and Israel.
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Iran has arrested several Iranians with dual nationality in recent years and convicted them of crimes against state security in closed-door trials. Rights groups say those detainees are being denied due process and accuse Iran of using them as bargaining chips with the West, something Iranian authorities deny.
Ryan Morik of Fox News Digital and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
