Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
Iranwire – Iran’s national football team sang along to their national anthem at their second World Cup match in Qatar, after remaining silent in their opening game earlier this week in an apparent sign of support of anti-government protesters back home.
Loud jeers were heard from Iranian supporters as the anthem played before the match kick-off against Wales on November 25, as some fans in the stadium wept.
Outside the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, the Associated news agency said some Iran fans confiscated pre-revolutionary Iranian flags from supporters and shouted insults at those wearing shirts with “Woman, Life, Freedom.”
Shouting matches erupted between fans shouting the slogan of the country’s protest movement and others screaming “The Islamic Republic.”
Fans were quoted as saying that stadium security removed items with messages in support of the protest movement that has swept Iran for more than two months.
Iranian security forces have responded with brutal force to suppress the demonstrations demanding more freedoms and women’s rights.
At least 416 people, including 51 children and 27 women, have been killed in the brutal crackdown by security forces on the protests, according to one human rights group. Thousands of people have also been arrested.
At least six have so far been sentenced to death over the demonstrations that have marked one of the boldest challenges to its clerical rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
