The World Cup is a soccer sport that is played every 4 years, and it brings out the best in people because they are able to support their nationality and culture all together while valuing the professional skills and talent of professional athletes. In 2022’s World Cup, a professional athlete who plays for Iranian was sentenced to 26 years in prison after campaigning for women’s rights and basic freedom in his country following a protest with the death of Mahsa Amini under the custody of Iran’s Morality Police.
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I absolutely admire the player’s courageous stand against a widely controversial issue and I agree that using the World Cup platform was the right choice to express his support. World Cup 2022 has been a huge controversy because it really portrayed the corrupted FIFA organization of exploiting workers with lower wages and the support to the LGBTQ community in a country that opposes their ideology. Being a fan and a player of this sport, it’s hurtful to see it go to ruins by privatization.
I have never heard of this incident and am very happy to have come across your post! I find it beyond sad to think you can have freedom of speech, yet you can’t. With protesting for women’s rights, what went wrong for him to be sentenced to prison for so long? If it was due to the wrong timing and place, then I find that bizarre as spreading awareness is not always known nor planned. I will definitely be researching more on this topic and hope many can fight for his goal of protecting women’s rights.
I love it when athletes use their platforms to project important messages that the world needs to hear and understand. This situation reminds me of the Colin Kaepernick situation and similar to that will have an impact on the sport and the country. Though Iranian society is much more restrictive in their freedom of speech, I think that risking your career and well-being to fight for a bigger cause is very admirable.
It is so inspiring and courageous to see Iranians fight for whats right and to fight for their freedom, even if it means prison time or facing worser punishments.