The Monarchists Have Come To Harangue Iran’s World Cup Team

Given the circumstances, Iran has played extraordinary soccer in this year’s World Cup, equalizing not once but twice with New Zealand in a 2-2 result, and displaying robust defense in a 0-0 draw with Belgium, as keeper Alireza Beiranvand made a save that should go down as one of the best of the tournament. The Iranian team has accomplished all of this despite being legally barred from staying in the United States to rest after their games; Donald Trump’s administration has forced the squad to return to their training camp in Tijuana immediately afterward. One might expect that triumphing over these restrictive conditions would be cause for celebration among members of the diaspora community who have shown up to watch the games. So why, before their games against New Zealand and Belgium, was there a cascade of boos at the Iranian national anthem?

Iranian-American demonstrators have shown up to the Iran men’s national team’s games not to protest FIFA’s lack of action to protect the team, but to disavow the nation’s very presence at the World Cup, and to cheer on their opponents. These protesters have accused the team of being agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, agents of the Ayatollah, agents of the Iranian regime in general. One protester who had purchased a ticket to the New Zealand-Iran game said that he and others would boo during the anthem, so that those voices “will reach all the way to Iran.”

Iranian monarchism, advocating the restoration of the Shah’s rule in Tehran, has gone from functioning as a fringe movement to having substantial purchase with the Iranian diaspora over the past two decades. The movement’s leader, the late Shah’s son Reza Pahlavi, has become a stalwart advocate of military intervention in Iran especially within the past few years. His advocacy of war against his own country has been rewarded with attention by close Trump allies like Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was seen wearing a “Make Iran Great Again” hat while meeting with members of the Iranian diaspora and Israel’s ambassador to the UN earlier this year.