U.S. soccer player, two-time World Cup winner, and former Ballon d’Or Feminin recipient Megan Rapinoe is getting shredded like fine cheddar cheese for being a hypocrite over her silence on the Iranian women’s team. Five members of the Iran 2026 Women’s Asia Cup squad were granted asylum by the host country of the tournament, Australia, as joint strikes from Israel and the U.S. continue to hammer Iran.
The women’s team was labeled wartime traitors by Iran’s current Islamic regime for foregoing the country’s national anthem earlier in the tournament during a game with South Korea. So when the team was eliminated from the tournament, Australian officials offered them asylum if they feared they might be subjected to retribution once they arrived back home.
While Rapinoe has been a rather loud and vocal activist for women all over the world, she’s been strangely quiet on the tense and extremely dangerous situation Team Iran finds itself in, according to British television host Piers Morgan, who took to social media platform X to share his thoughts on the matter. “The silence over this from Rapinoe, and so many supposed ‘feminists’ like her, is so telling, damning, and hypocritical,” he said.
According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, Morgan went on to make a reference to Rapinoe’s consistent support for transgender athletes in women’s sports. “They’d rather campaign for biological men to wreck women’s sport than campaign for these heroic young sportswomen to help save their lives,” he continued. In his post. Morgan, 60, was writing in response to a piece from the New York Post rebuking Rapinoe over her criticism of Team USA men’s hockey for laughing at a joke about the women’s team.
During a recent episode of Rapinoe’s podcast, the soccer great slammed the men’s team saying, “The United States’ men’s hockey team in their utter moment of glory, childhood dreams come true, once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment, sensational – ruined it for themselves because they allowed themselves to be totally co-opted by a clown. And now, you’re a clown. You look like a clown.”
The five Iranian players who were granted asylum by Australia are now being housed at a safe location after their previous location was revealed by another member of their delegation, according to Australian officials. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke spoke with Parliament and informed them that 21-year-old striker Mohaddeseh Zolfi, along with support staffer Zahra Soltan Moshkehkar, accepted the offer of asylum after five others did so the day before.
One of the two ended up changing their minds and called the Iranian embassy “to get collected.” It was that call that led Iranian handlers to learn where the other members of the team were staying. Australian officials responded quickly and relocated the asylum seekers. “I immediately gave the instruction for people to be moved, and that’s been dealt with immediately,” Burke informed parliament.
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Burke then emphasized that the individual who decided to go back to Iran was given ample opportunities to stay put in the country. “This was her decision, and every question you would want asked, was asked,” he said. Those who decided to stay in Australia will be fast-tracked to permanent residency. He then identified the players as: Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Ghanbari, Zahra Sarbali, Atefeh Ramazanzadeh, and Mona Hamoudi.
Burke then said that the women wanted to make it clear they are not political activists making some sort of statement, but athletes who just want to be safe. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese commented on the situation, referring to the women as “brave” and promising “they’re safe here and they should feel at home here.” Iran has announced that it will not participate in this summer’s World Cup, which will be held in the United States. President Donald Trump was asked about Iran’s participation in the tournament, replying, “I really don’t care.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video