Iranian footballer sentenced to death for campaigning for women’s rights

Iranian football is once again under threat of regime violence, after it emerged that footballer Amir Nasr-Nazdani has been sentenced to death by the Iranian authorities.

This comes just weeks after the Iranian national anthem as booed by Iranian fans at the World Cup, and Iranian players neglected to sing the national anthem for their first game. Coach Carlos Queiroz dismissed questions of human rights abuses as hypocritical.

FIFPro have expressed their disgust at the news Nasr-Azdani has been sentenced to death by the Iranian regime for supporting women’s rights.

According to IranWire, Nasr-Azdani is one of three people who had attended protests, but been forced to confess to the murder of government agents, in which he had no part. He was not present in the area where those murders took place.

Iconic forward Ali Karimi has called on the authorities to revoke their decision, while former Osasuna player Masoud Shajaei supported that idea too with the hashtag ‘No to Exceution’ on his social media.

Nasr-Azdani, 26, plays for Tractor Siza in Isfahan, where former Rayo Vallecano coach Paco Jemez has recently taken over. The incident is another depressing episode of retribution against people that merely want women to be able to wear the clothes and act as they want.