The Qatar World Cup has turned into a field of political confrontations, as the second Iran match was preceded by verbal confrontations between supporters and opponents of the Iranian regime, and the previous days witnessed disputes between Israelis and Palestinians on Qatari soil.
Tensions escalated in Iran’s second World Cup match on Friday after supporters of the Iranian government harassed others sympathetic to the anti-government protests.
Agency said Associated Press The security of stadiums in Qatar confiscated flags, T-shirts and other items that contained symbols and phrases supporting the protest movement in the Islamic Republic.
The security of Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, where the Iran-Wales match was held, prevented some fans from entering the Iranian flag, which was adopted before the Islamic Revolution.
Pro-Iranian government fans also snatched old flags from the hands of other fans, and insulted those wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan of the protest movement, “Women are free lives.”
Before the whistle at the start of the match, the Iranian players chanted their national anthem, unlike what happened in the first match against England, when some fans in the stadium cried while others booed.
After the end of the match, which ended in a fatal victory for Iran (2-0), confrontations erupted between the fans outside the stadium, with some chanting “Women are free lives” and others cheering for the Islamic Republic.
The agency notes that small groups of men surrounded three women who were giving interviews about the protests to foreign media outside the stadium, angrily chanting “Islamic Republic of Iran”, which disrupted the broadcast.
Many Iranian fans appeared in shock when Iranian government supporters shouted at them in Farsi and filmed them up close with their mobile phones.
A 35-year-old woman named Maryam, who like other Iranian fans refused to give her full name for fear of government reprisals, began to cry as men surrounded her screaming and blowing horns and filming her face.
Mariam had the phrase “Women are free life” painted on her face. “I am not here to fight with anyone, but people were attacking me and calling me a terrorist,” said Maryam, who lives in London but is originally from Tehran. “All I want to say is that football does not matter if people are killed in the streets.”
Maryam and her friends wore caps with the name of the famous Iranian soccer player, Fawria Ghafouri, who had criticized the Iranian authorities and was arrested on Thursday for spreading propaganda against the government. She said that supporters of the Iranian government forcibly removed the hats from their heads.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Over the past few days, videos have circulated on social media of Qataris and other Arabs angrily confronting Israeli reporters who were broadcasting live, as well as pushing, insulting and assaulting them, according to the newspaper.Yedioth Ahronoth“.
The newspaper says that what happened highlights the depth of the political conflict between the two sides, despite the fact that their teams did not participate in the tournament.
She adds that many circulated video clips showing the refusal of a Qatari citizen to interview an Israeli journalist as soon as he learned of the channel’s nationality, along with other clips of Palestinians and Qataris angrily confronting Israeli correspondents live.
And she indicated that they considered what happened as evidence of Qatar’s unwillingness to rapprochement with Israel, despite its allowing the Israelis to travel directly to Doha and receive consular support for the first time in history in order to attend the World Cup matches.