Iranian soccer participant Voria Ghafouri (proper), then a member of the nationwide soccer crew, fights for the ball with Iraqi midfielder Hussein Ali through the AFC Asian Cup soccer match in Dubai in 2019. The semiofficial Fars and Tasnim information companies reported on Thursday that Iran arrested Ghafouri for insulting the nationwide soccer crew and criticizing the federal government.

Kamran Jebreili/AP

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Kamran Jebreili/AP

Iranian soccer participant Voria Ghafouri (proper), then a member of the nationwide soccer crew, fights for the ball with Iraqi midfielder Hussein Ali through the AFC Asian Cup soccer match in Dubai in 2019. The semiofficial Fars and Tasnim information companies reported on Thursday that Iran arrested Ghafouri for insulting the nationwide soccer crew and criticizing the federal government.

Kamran Jebreili/AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran arrested a distinguished former member of its nationwide soccer crew on Thursday over his criticism of the federal government as authorities grapple with nationwide protests which have solid a shadow over its competitors on the World Cup.

The semiofficial Fars and Tasnim information companies reported that Voria Ghafouri was arrested for “insulting the national soccer team and propagandizing against the government.”

Ghafouri, who was not chosen to go to the World Cup, has been an outspoken critic of Iranian authorities all through his profession. He objected to a longstanding ban on ladies spectators at males’s soccer matches in addition to Iran’s confrontational international coverage, which has led to crippling Western sanctions.

More just lately, he expressed sympathy for the household of a 22-year-old lady whose demise whereas within the custody of Iran’s morality police ignited the latest protests. In current days he additionally known as for an finish to a violent crackdown on protests in Iran’s western Kurdistan area.

The studies of his arrest got here forward of Friday’s World Cup match between Iran and Wales. At Iran’s opening match, a 6-2 loss to England, the members of the Iranian nationwide crew declined to sing alongside to their nationwide anthem and some fans expressed support for the protests.

The protests have been ignited by the Sept. 16 demise of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish lady arrested by the morality police within the capital, Tehran. They quickly escalated into nationwide demonstrations calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. The western Kurdish area of the nation, the place each Amini and Ghafouri are from, has been the epicenter of the protests. Shops have been closed within the area on Thursday following requires a normal strike.

Iranian officers haven’t stated whether or not Ghafouri’s activism was a consider not selecting him for the nationwide crew. He performs for the Khuzestan Foolad crew within the southwestern metropolis of Ahvaz.

The protests present no signal of waning, and mark one of many greatest challenges to Iran’s ruling clerics because the 1979 Islamic Revolution that introduced them to energy. Rights teams say safety forces have used unleashed reside ammunition and hen shot on the protesters, in addition to beating and arresting them, with a lot of the violence captured on video.

At least 442 protesters have been killed and greater than 18,000 detained because the begin of the unrest, in line with Human Rights Activists in Iran, a gaggle that has been monitoring the protests.

The U.N. Human Rights Council voted Thursday to condemn the crackdown and to create an unbiased fact-finding mission to analyze alleged abuses, significantly these dedicated towards ladies and youngsters.

Authorities have blamed the unrest on hostile international powers, with out offering proof, and say separatists and different armed teams have attacked safety forces. Human Rights Activists in Iran says at the very least 57 safety personnel have been killed, whereas state media have reported a better toll.

The protesters say they’re fed up after a long time of social and political repression, together with a strict gown code imposed on ladies. Young ladies have performed a number one position within the protests, stripping off the necessary Islamic headband to precise their rejection of clerical rule.

Some Iranians are actively rooting towards their very own crew on the World Cup, associating it with rulers they view as violent and corrupt. Others insist the nationwide crew, which incorporates gamers who’ve spoken out on social media in solidarity with the protests, represents the nation’s folks.

The crew’s star ahead, Sardar Azmoun, who has been vocal concerning the protests on-line, was on the bench through the opening match. In addition to Ghafouri, two different former soccer stars have been arrested for expressing assist for the protests.

Other Iranian athletes have additionally been drawn into the battle.

Iranian rock climber Elnaz Rekabi competed with out carrying the necessary headband at a global competitors in South Korea in October, a transfer broadly seen as expressing assist for the protests. She obtained a hero’s welcome from protesters upon returning to Iran, whilst she instructed state media the transfer was “unintentional” in an interview that will have been given below duress.

Earlier this month, Iran’s soccer federation threatened to punish gamers on its seaside soccer crew after it defeated Brazil at a global competitors in Dubai. One of the gamers had celebrated after scoring a aim by mimicking a feminine protester chopping off her hair.