An Iranian activist was shot dead by the authorities in the city of Bandar-e Anzali for celebrating the team’s loss to the United States and exit from the World Cup, said a rights group.
According to the human rights group, Mehran Samak, 27, was shot dead while he was honking his car horn in Bandar Anzali, a city on the Caspian Sea coast. Since the country has been facing mass protest following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custordy, there has been mixed response regarding the country’s exit from World Cup. In order to fight for justice, many people have refused to support their team against the government’s crackdown on the protest which also resulted in the death of 448 people.
Samak “was targeted directly and shot in the head by security forces … following the defeat of the national team against America”, said the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR). However, no official statement by the authorities in this matter has been released yet. Few hours after the incident, Iranian international midfielder Saeid Ezatolahi, who played for US posted a picture of him Samak and describing him as his “childhood teammate”. Saeid took to his instagram and expressed his sorrow by the Iranian officials. He shared that Samak had played in the US match and was from Bandar Anzali.
“After last night’s bitter loss, the news of your passing set fire to my heart,” said Ezatolahi on Instagram. “Some day the masks will fall, the truth will be laid bare. “This is not what our youth deserve. This is not what our nation deserves.” He further said.
The players in their first clash against England in the support of protestors did not sing the national anthem. However they did sing it while playing against Wales and USA clashes.
Iran’s football team after facing a backlash from the government for not singing national anthem at the start of the game, later on half heartedly sang the anthem. The Iranian team have been in a conflicting situation facing fierce criticism from both the sides as there was a mounting pressure from the government that serious action might be taken against them if they did not sing the anthem. While on the other hand many Iranians had boycotted the World Cup as they felt that the team did not show enough support for the protestors and criticism against government’s crackdown on the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini.
At least 448 people have been killed by the Iranian Security forces in a crackdown on the protest held in Iran over the death of 22 –year old Mahsa Amini. She was taken in the police custody by Iran’s morality police for wearing an ‘inapropriate’ headscarf.