INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Two hours before Iran’s national soccer team opened World Cup play against New Zealand on Monday night, an Iranian American man and his teenage daughter got in line to enter SoFi Stadium.
Draped around the daughter’s shoulder was an Iranian tri-color flag with a golden Lion and Sun emblem in the middle.
That flag served as Iran’s official flag until the current Islamic regime seized power in 1979 and altered it, replacing the Lion and Sun image with a new coat of arms. Iranian Americans who want to display pride for their heritage but protest the tyranny of the Islamic government often display the “Lion and Sun” flag at rallies or sporting events.
The Iranian American man and his daughter made it as far as the stadium gates on Monday before a security guard stopped them. The security guard explained that FIFA has banned the Lion and Sun flag from inside World Cup venues, presumably because the international soccer governing body considers it too political in nature.
“It’s very frustrating,” the Iranian American man told Yahoo Sports before Iran rallied for a 2-2 tie with New Zealand. “What do they expect us to do? Support a regime that we do not believe in?”
World Cup hub | Viewer’s guide | Power rankings | Predictions | Players to watch
When asked for their names, the teenage daughter started to answer, but her dad stopped her.
“I’m not safe giving my name and saying that I’m anti-government,” he said.
The dad and his daughter were far from the only people told they could not enter SoFi Stadium with their Lion and Sun flags. In the span of an hour before Monday’s match, Yahoo Sports watched security guards give nearly a dozen spectators the option of either getting out of line with their flags or having them seized and confiscated.
A middle-aged man who said he was born in Iran but now lives in the Los Angeles area was turned away by security because of his Lion and Sun flag. Afterward, he fumed, “It’s not like I’m cussing people out. This was the flag I was raised with.”
A woman brandishing a flag asked her two friends before they got in line, “Should I tuck it under my shirt?” Turns out she probably should have because her flag ended up in the balled fist of a Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputy.
FIFA’s desire to keep out the Lion and Sun flag was strong enough that security guards were instructed to check any flag they saw. When a man holding the Star-Spangled Banner was asked to unfold it, he said in apparent disbelief, “It’s an American flag, man!”
The current Iranian regime is deeply unpopular domestically and abroad because of its history of economic mismanagement, human rights abuses and repression of freedom of expression. Protesters have long pushed for equal rights for women and for religious and ethnic minorities, but Amnesty International reports that the Iranian government has responded to public dissent with brutal crackdowns, unlawful killings and even torture.
Emotions are especially fraught in Southern California, site of Iran’s group stage opener against New Zealand. The Los Angeles area is the heartbeat of the Iranian diaspora, home to more people of Persian ancestry than anywhere else in the world besides Iran. So many Iranians fled their home country after the 1979 revolution and settled in Westwood, Beverly Hills and surrounding West LA communities that the area is now affectionately known as “Tehrangeles.”
Anti-regime protesters found ways to show their resistance Monday night despite FIFA’s attempt to ban the Lion and Sun flag. They protested outside SoFi Stadium before the match began. They distributed T-shirts bearing the Lion and Sun emblem or the names and photographs of protesters reportedly killed during crackdowns in Iran.
Among the pregame protesters were two men with Lion and Sun flags wrapped around their shoulders and Lion and Sun emblems emblazoned on their T-shirts.
“This is a way to say that we’re here for football but we’re also looking forward to getting rid of this regime,” said Siavash, an Iranian American who did not feel comfortable providing his last name because, as he put it, “With this regime, you have to be careful.”
“Worst-case scenario, we’ll have to leave the flags outside,” Siavash added, “but we’re going to do our best to get them in.”
There were dozens of fans who did manage to get their Lion and Sun flags inside SoFi Stadium despite security’s best efforts. They proudly waved those flags when the current Iranian flag was unfurled on the field before the match, when the Iranian national anthem played and even when New Zealand scored to briefly take leads of 1-0 and 2-1.
Those who didn’t have flags still made their feelings known. A smattering of boos were audible during the Iranian national anthem. Others protested by turning their backs while the anthem played.
Security wasn’t as concerned with those who wore Lion and Sun emblems on their baseball caps or T-shirts, but a few unlucky folks didn’t make it through the gates without getting stopped. Among those was Mehdi Estiri, who was asked to cover his Lion and Sun T-shirt with a sweatshirt while his wife and son turned theirs inside-out.
Once Estiri made it through the gates, he made his frustration with FIFA’s rules clear.
“This is the true flag of my country,” he said. “For the last 47 years, they’ve taken my country hostage with a fake flag.”
About the Author
