A week ago, a beaming Tony Burke stood alongside five members of the Iranian women’s soccer team.
The women had just been granted humanitarian visas after days of secret talks, and they would be taking up asylum in Australia.
Burke was front and centre for Australia’s diplomatic triumph, while Iran’s national pride took a serious blow as the nation reeled from US President Donald Trump’s bombing campaign.
But as five of the seven defectors change their minds, relinquish their visas and head for Iran, there are questions about whether a more low-key approach might have been better.
Shahram Akbarzadeh, a research professor in Middle East and Central Asian politics and one of Australia’s foremost experts on the Iranian regime, says that Burke’s close involvement in the case “definitely raised the profile [of the defection] – it definitely made it a political stunt and that obviously raised the bar for the Iranian authorities”.
“It looked like Iran was losing to Australia and America, we celebrated this as a win and now Iran is celebrating this as a blow to Trump.”
Burke acknowledged how difficult the women’s decision to leave their homeland must have been, and made clear when the first five defected on Monday night last week that other members of the team were also welcome in Australia.
But he also revelled in the moment, revealing in a triumphant press conference at Brisbane airport first thing last Tuesday that “once everything had been signed off last night [Monday a week ago], there were lots of photos, lots of celebrating, and then a spontaneous outbreak of Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi oi”.
Two more Iranian women joined the first five defectors a day later.
It was a diplomatic triumph – even if Albanese had to explain to Trump that Australia had already granted asylum after the president had posted on social media demanding their rescue. The dramatic story was a PR coup for the US and Israel, too, as they continued to bomb Iran, targeting senior figures in the theocratic regime for assassination.
And then it all began to fall apart.
Burke had only just finished celebrating the second set of defections on his Instagram page last Wednesday morning when his team had to break the news that one of the two women, 21-year-old player Mohaddeseh Zolfi, had contacted Iranian officials and asked to be picked up and taken home, hours after her decision to defect.
Home Affairs had to scramble to find a different safe house for the other players once she’d given the regime their address.
Four more women have since followed suit. There is a chance the final two players still in Australia could decide to join their teammates.
The Iranian-Australian diaspora community immediately accused the regime in Tehran of pressuring the women to return, and of threatening the families, both of which are plausible. At least some of the women spoke to family in Iran before making their initial asylum decisions.
Burke was at pains to stress that none of the women were pressured into staying in Australia.
In Tehran, the regime celebrated the players’ change of heart as an embarrassment for the US and Australia.
Iranian state news agency Tasnim declared “this ploy, premeditated by enemies and fuelled by interference from overseas monarchists, drew direct involvement from the US President, aiming to mask his military setbacks”.
Australia’s government, the news agency added, was “playing a subservient and shameful role in Trump’s scheme to, as per foreign media, inflict a ‘major defeat’ on the Iranian nation through amplified news coverage”.
So did Burke mishandle the defection of the Iranian women’s footballers?
He posted the Instagram photo and the women’s names – already leaked out on social media – at their request.
The plight of the women, described as traitors in an Iranian broadcast, had made international headlines all week. Burke would have been accused of secrecy if Australia had not outlined the role played.
It wasn’t so much that Australia came forward to offer asylum as the way it was done – so happy and so soon.
But the home affairs minister, handed a rare good news story in his portfolio, held just two press conferences and took two questions in parliament, but knocked back countless interview requests about the story, including from this masthead.
Still, Iran watchers are amazed by the decision to showcase the players’ defections as “political theatre”.
“This is so unlike Australia, when [Australian academic] Kylie Moore-Gilbert was arrested in Iran, DFAT insisted on quiet diplomacy,” says Akbarzadeh. “For almost two years they refused to say anything in public. This was a reversal of policy, everything was on the front pages of the newspaper.”
The astonishing story of the Iranian team in Australia does not have the Hollywood ending many were hoping for. Their decisions more difficult, their choices more complex.
James Massola is chief political commentator. He was previously national affairs editor and South-East Asia correspondent. He has won Quill and Kennedy awards and been a Walkley finalist. Connect securely on Signal @jamesmassola.01Connect via X or email.
