Urgent: welfare check, call now Iran women's football team

13:00 Sun, 08 Mar 2026

As publicised all around the world, the women's football team from Iran is currently touring Australia.

Their final match takes place today, International Women's Day and then they will be placed on a plane back to Iran.

At their first match, they refused to sing the national anthem.

At their second match, they saluted and sung the national anthem.

Experts have widely observed this change in behaviour was due to coercive control.

The state of Queensland was the first state in Australia to introduce laws on coercive control. The police have an obligation to uphold the law. The women's final match is in Queensland.

The security team who came from Iran are living in close proximity to the women in the same hotel. This is a domestic relationship for the purpose of Queensland law. The hotel bookings and travel companions are all organised for the women. They can not go anywhere on their own. Therefore, it is a form of domestic interdependency and the law applies to each woman in this case.

When alerted about a domestic situation, the police have an obligation to act. At the very least, police are obliged to make a welfare check. They will not do so unless people ask them.

State TV in Iran has clearly stated the women are "wartime traitors". In most cases of coercive control, the evidence of such threats is hidden from public view. In this case, there is a threat that women who speak up while outside Iran will be subject to criminal persecution under the laws for treason.

In 2013, Australia's then Labor government published a video humiliating female asylum seekers from Iran.

I joined the ALP in 1997 and when I saw the video humiliating women from Iran I resigned immediately. My resignation was leaked and published by Crikey. A full copy of the email is below.

My resignation email has suddenly become a vital piece of evidence that the Australian government wants to deter women from Iran from making claims for political asylum. On that basis, it is even more urgent for anybody concerned with the matter to contact local police and ask them to make a welfare check on these women.

If you believe there is an urgent and immediate threat to the life of any woman in Queensland then the number to dial is 000. This number only works in Australia and it should only be used for emergencies.

For any other request for a welfare check, you can visit a local police station or call Queensland police on +61730556206 (from the web site).

When speaking to the police, it is important to emphasise these points:

The women are currently in Queensland police jurisdiction
They will be forced to leave the jurisdiction within a few hours
These women are subject to a domestic arrangement by way of their group travel booking.
These women are accompanied by a group of men wherever they go.
Their refusal to sing the national anthem at the first match is a sign they are silently making a complaint and asking for help
Their change of behaviour, saluting and singing the national anthem at their second game, is a sign they were under coercive control to withdraw the complaint they made by way of silence
These women were subject to a direct threat, which was broadcast on Iran's state television, implying the women will be persecuted for treason.
The video produced by the Australian government in July 2013 is intended to have the impact of coercive control, by deterring Iranian women from exercising their rights in Australia, with the threat of public humiliation.
When the FIFA women's world cup was held in Australia, federal authorities failed to act on the behaviour of Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales, despite the fact his behaviour was seen by everybody on national TV. He was able to board a plane and leave Australia without any investigation or prosecution.
It is essential for Queensland police to open an official file on the risk to each woman in the group
It is essential for Queensland police to make a welfare check on each woman in the group

Not so long ago, in Switzerland I met the boss of one of the Iranian sporting federations during youth Winter Olympics:

Here is the email resignation when the ALP government humiliated Iranian women with a video in July 2013:

Subject: ALP Policy, Pride and the horrors of Rape
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 23:44:17 +0200 (CEST)
From: Daniel Pocock 
Reply-To: Victorian Labor 
To: [ all Victorian ALP members ]

Not long ago the state branch took it upon themselves to print
"Proud Labor Member" on the membership cards.  When you saw the degrading video
of a poor, vulnerable, female refugee broadcast around the world on
Monday was pride the emotion that you felt in your heart?  If it was, you
need not bother reading any further.

I've been a member of the ALP for 15 years.  I've never been more ashamed of
that than today when I saw the news about our ALP Government putting refugees
put back into detention in the hands of people who had raped them.
This is far worse than the allegations against the Catholic Church.

The ALP has been in Government for 6 years now.  It is absurd to think
their joint US/Australia spy programs can monitor the movements of suspects
half way around the world in the middle east, but they are not aware
when rapes take place under the care and protection of our own national
refugee program.  If your MP didn't personally know about these things,
then just what kind of a job is he doing?  No program of detention in
the history of mankind has ever ended up in anything less tragic
than what we are seeing now.

If your MP is (or was) a cabinet member, the only question is how
much did they know and for how long have they been deceiving us and the
rest of the nation about it.  They obstructed the media and the minor
parties from scrutinising these concentration camps to try and keep
each and every one of us in the dark.

Several of these shameless people are planning to retire on a hefty
pension in just a few weeks from now while those unfortunate human
beings who came under their protection are suffering with the scars
of self-mutilation and rape for the rest of their lives.  What a contrast.
Labor values shining through.

When the federal election campaign officially kicks off, who is
really going to feel comfortable going out there in an ALP T-shirt
wondering what the next revelations of abuse are going to look like?
Do we have to wait for Mr Assange or Mr Snowden to challenge
the excesses of our Government at risk to their own lives or do
we have the guts to speak up about it, each and every one of us?

I've started including some of my own observations about Australia's
failings on my blog recently.  You are more than welcome to comment
there or through your preferred social platform.  It's time to tell your
MP and the world that human beings are not a subject for deals, debates,
swaps and rapes.

http://danielpocock.com/if-assange-is-a-rapist-what-kind-of-monster-runs-australia

When people are being raped and abused, it's no time to be patient, complacent
or apathetic.  It's no time for another spineless excuse about the hung
parliament or the lack of outright control in the Senate.  If you came
across Adrian Bayley raping another woman in a laneway the way he savaged
Jill Meagher, would you just walk by?  That is exactly what this parliament
has done for people in need.  If you are really a Proud Labor Member you wouldn't
be able to live with this shame.

---------------------------------------------

The worker who blew the whistle on these rapes is currently facing litigation
for breaching a confidentiality clause in his contract.  Is Labor
doing enough to ensure whiste-blowers who speak out about crime can
feel safe from persecution?

---------------------------------------------

You are receiving this email as you are on a list maintained and circulated by the Victorian branch of the ALP.  I've set the reply header so you can reply
directly to them if you want your address removed from the list.

For any other request for a welfare check, you can visit a local police station or call Queensland police on +61730556206 (from the web site).

When speaking to the police, it is important to emphasise the list of points given above.